Singapore prosecutors leveled new charges in the cases against three men suspected of defrauding suppliers of server computers potentially containing Nvidia Corp chips subject to US export curbs.
The two Singaporean men arrested last month were each handed a second fraud charge, and now face one for each server supplier they are suspected of duping, the prosecution told a court Thursday. The third man, a Chinese national, received an additional charge for unauthorised bank-account use.
The suspects appeared in the court session via video in handcuffs and wearing red T-shirts, and were all denied bail. Thursday’s hearing focused on procedure and technical discussions around the new charges, shedding little new light on the broader contours of the investigation. The court will next hear the cases on March 13.
The case centers on whether the trio played a role in misleading server suppliers, including by misrepresenting the actual end-user of the hardware. It is casting light on how advanced US chip technology subject to trade restrictions is channeled globally through regions such as South-East Asia, and potentially finding its way to countries including China.
The US is relying on its curbs to hinder China’s capabilities in strategic areas from supercomputing to artificial intelligence, but so far they’ve proven less than fully effective.
Singaporean prosecutors initially charged the three men in late February. The city state’s Law Minister K Shanmugam on Monday confirmed the servers were made by Dell Technologies Inc. and Super Micro Computer Inc. and they could contain Nvidia chips subject to US export controls. Authorities are trying to determine the final destination of the products after they’ve been shipped to Malaysia from Singapore, according to Shanmugam. – Bloomberg
