SINGAPORE: A fifth person has been hauled to court in relation to the Nvidia chips case. Shi Bingzhe, 34, was handed 41 charges on Nov 12, including a charge for acquiring the benefits of criminal conduct.
Several other individuals have also been charged with various offences in relation to the case.
They are: Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, Chinese national Li Ming, 51, and Jenny Lim, 51.
Wei, Lim and Woon were handed charges for fraud and money laundering, while Li was charged with fraud and fraudulent trading.
Four firms allegedly linked to the export of computer servers that might contain Nvidia chips to Malaysia were charged in July for false representation.
The companies are Aperia International, A-Speed Infotech and Aperia Cloud Services (II) – collectively known as the Aperia Group – and Luxuriate Your Life.
Wei was then Asperia Group’s chief executive, while Lim was the firm’s chief financial officer. Woon was the firm’s head of sales.
Li worked at Luxuriate Your Life as the company’s controller.
In the wake of the investigation, the police issued a prohibition of disposal order against a good class bungalow valued at about $55 million in relation to this case. They also seized about $1 million in funds from bank accounts linked to the probe.
The case came to light after 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 Singapore.
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, 2025, then-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. - The Straits Times/ANN
