SINGAPORE: Two men charged with fraud over the movement of Nvidia chips were each handed a fresh charge in court on Thursday (Mar 6). 

Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, appeared in court jointly via videolink dressed in red polo T-shirts. Woon was represented by lawyer Cheryl Chong, while Wei by lawyer Shashi Nathan.

Woon and Wei now each face two charges of being in a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud on two suppliers of servers, Dell and Super Micro. 

They are said to have made false representations in 2024 that the items would not be transferred to a person other than the "authorised ultimate consignee of end users".

Apart from preferring the new charges, Deputy Public Prosecutors Ng Yi Wen and Kang Jia Hui applied for both to be remanded for a further eight days given the complex nature of the case. 

Mr Ng said that investigators managed to uncover further evidence leading to Thursday's fresh charges, showing that the period of remand had been useful. 

"Specifically, this investigation has allowed the CAD (Commercial Affairs Department) to identify the two suppliers of servers that the accused persons had conspired to make the false representations to, namely Dell and Super Micro," said Mr Ng.

Mr Ng also updated the court on investigations. CAD has seized 42 devices, comprising laptops, phones and computers, which it is still forensically examining, he said. 

It has also requested bank statements from various financial institutions to trace funds and determine its movement. 

Investigators were also recording statements from "new persons of interest" and existing witnesses based on new documents. 

CAD will also be seeking assistance from foreign law enforcement counterparts, Mr Ng added without specifying the countries involved. It will confront the two accused with new evidence and record further statements.

"Given the steps that CAD intends to carry out, it is likely that further evidence will be obtained by ordering of further remand of eight days we thus urge the court to grant the application," said Mr Ng. 

Both defence counsels did not object to the application. The lawyers said they had not had direct contact with their clients, but noted that CAD will be allowing them to meet on Mar 12. Both men's cases are fixed for a further mention on Mar 13.

Woon and Wei were first charged on Feb 27 after being arrested the day before. Another man, Chinese national Li Ming, 51, was also charged then. His case, originally fixed for mention on Thursday morning, was stood down to the afternoon. 

The three were among nine people arrested during raids by the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Customs in February, after media reports stated that intermediaries in the country were involved in the illegal movement of Nvidia chips to China, bypassing US export controls. 

Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips are subject to US export restrictions and US authorities are investigating whether Chinese AI sensation DeepSeek had circumvented sanctions through third parties in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

On Monday, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said investigations into the three men were carried out independently by Singapore after authorities received an anonymous tip-off, and not requested by the US or any other country.

He said the servers linked to the fraud case may have contained Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips which were then sent to Malaysia. 

“The question is whether Malaysia was a final destination or from Malaysia, it went to somewhere else, which we do not know for certain at this point,” he told reporters.

“But we assessed that there may have been false representation on the final destination of the servers.”

Singapore has asked Malaysian and US authorities to for relevant information to assist in investigations.

Mr Shanmugam said companies operating in Singapore are expected to take into account other countries' unilateral export controls in their international business activities and conduct their businesses transparently.

Countries in the trade and supply chain have to work together to ensure that everything is done properly, by enforcing their domestic laws within their jurisdictions, he added. 

The offence of fraud by false representation carries a jail term of up to 20 years, a fine, or both.