- Illustrative photo.
SINGAPORE: Three men were charged with fraud on Thursday (Feb 27) in a case allegedly linked to chipmaker Nvidia.
This was after Singapore came under the spotlight in a US investigation into whether Chinese start-up DeepSeek had circumvented US restrictions on advanced Nvidia chips by buying them from third parties in other countries, including the Republic.
The men are Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, and Chinese national Li Ming, 51.
Li allegedly committed fraud in 2023 on an unnamed supplier of servers, identified in court documents as “the items”.
He is accused of fradulently making a false representation that a company called Luxuriate Your Life would be the end user of the items.
Wei and Woon are accused of working together in 2024 to commit fraud on an unnamed supplier of servers, also referred to in court documents as “the items”.
The two men allegedly made a false representation that the items would not be transferred to a person other than the authorised ultimate consignee of end users.
The trio’s cases have been adjourned to March 7.
In January, DeepSeek launched a free artificial intelligence (AI) assistant at a fraction of the cost of US models as it uses less data.
Within days, it became the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store and stirred concerns about the US’ lead in AI, sparking a rout that wiped around US$1 trillion (S$1.34 trillion) off the value of US technology stocks.
US lawmakers had in January singled out Singapore in a letter urging National Security Adviser Mike Waltz to subject countries to strict licensing requirements if they were not willing to crack down on shipments to China.
The scrutiny of Singapore was heightened after Nvidia’s latest financial results showed that 22 per cent of its third-quarter billings were to the Republic, making it the biggest buyer of its chips after the US.
On Feb 18, Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng told Parliament that products sold by Nvidia to Singapore that were physically delivered here represent less than 1 per cent of the chipmaker’s overall revenue.
Dr Tan also said that the remainder of Nvidia’s revenue billed to business entities in Singapore did not involve physical shipments into the country.
Responding to questions from Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang), Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar GRC) and Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC), Dr Tan also said that Nvidia’s products are mainly deployed here for major enterprises and the Government.
Dr Tan added: “If a company in Singapore is engaged in deceptive or dishonest practices to evade export controls that it is subject to, we will investigate, and we will take the appropriate action in accordance with Singapore laws.
“It is in our national interest to secure access to leading-edge technology and to maintain the integrity of our business environment.”
Responding to supplementary questions from Associate Professor Lim about the role of foreign policy in Singapore’s trade decisions, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said Singapore is not legally obliged to enforce the unilateral export measures of countries around the world.
“But we will enforce the multilateral agreed-upon export control regimes,” he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
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