Singapore prosecutors revealed in court on Thursday that a fraud case involving Singapore-based firms and U.S. servers sold to Malaysia includes transactions worth $390 million. The three men charged in the case are accused of defrauding Dell and Super Micro by falsely claiming where the servers would ultimately be delivered.
The case has drawn attention in the media, with some suggesting a possible link to Nvidia’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips and the Chinese AI company DeepSeek. The U.S. is currently investigating whether DeepSeek has used banned U.S. chips in its AI models, which gained significant attention in January for their strong performance.
While Singapore authorities have mentioned that the servers in question may have contained Nvidia chips, they have not confirmed whether these chips were the high-end semiconductors that are restricted by U.S. export controls. Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister, K Shanmugam, has refrained from speculating on a connection to DeepSeek.
The three accused men are Aaron Woon, 41, and Alan Wei, 49, both Singaporeans, and Li Ming, 51, a Chinese national. Prosecutors stated that Wei allegedly paid himself millions in dividends, while Woon received a bonus worth millions as well.
Shashi Nathan, Wei’s lawyer, questioned the evidence presented by prosecutors, asking for proof of the value of the alleged fraudulent transactions. Li’s lawyer declined to comment, and Woon’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
The case is part of a broader investigation in Singapore into 22 individuals and companies suspected of making false representations. Police have already arrested six other people, and prosecutors are also looking into whether other suppliers were involved in similar fraudulent activities.
In addition, Malaysia is conducting its own investigation to determine whether its laws were violated in connection with the case.
The three men will return to court on May 2.
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