SINGAPORE, March 13 — Three men linked to the export of computer servers to Malaysia that may contain Nvidia chips have been offered bail, with amounts ranging up to S$1 million (RM3.3 million).
Chinese national Li Ming, 51, was offered the highest bail at S$1 million, while Singaporeans Alan Wei Zhaolun, 48, and Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 40, were offered bail at S$800,000 and S$600,000, respectively.
Li faces two charges — one for fraud and another under the Computer Misuse Act, while Woon and Wei each face two fraud charges, according to a report published in The Straits Times today.
Prosecutors allege that in 2023, Li defrauded server supplier Supermicro by falsely claiming that the end user of the servers was Luxuriate Your Life, a company he controlled.
He is also accused of unlawfully accessing an OCBC corporate bank account on June 19, 2024, to make and receive transfers related to Luxuriate Your Life.
Meanwhile, Woon and Wei are accused of conspiring to commit fraud against Dell and Supermicro by falsely stating in 2024 that the servers would not be transferred to unauthorised parties.
The duo worked at Singapore-based Aperia Cloud Services, where Wei was chief executive and Woon was chief operating officer.
During the March 13 court hearing, Li’s lawyer, Wendell Wong, did not contest the S$1 million bail but reserved the right to revisit the amount.
He also sought clarifications on the conditions, including designated “exclusion zones” that Li must avoid, such as immigration checkpoints, and a prohibition on discussing the case with certain individuals, including his wife, who is a person of interest in the investigation.
Lawyers for Wei and Woon sought lower bail amounts, citing their local ties, but prosecutors maintained that the charges were serious, and investigations were ongoing.
The prosecution estimated that the fraud involving Wei and Woon amounted to US$250 million, while Li’s case involved around US$140 million.
They also noted that Wei had received an eight-figure dividend, and Woon a seven-figure bonus from a company implicated in the case.
The cases have been adjourned to May 2.
Preliminary investigations suggest that servers from US firms Dell and Supermicro — potentially embedded with Nvidia’s artificial intelligence (AI) chips — were sent to Singapore-based companies before being exported to Malaysia.
The probe was triggered by an anonymous tip-off.
On March 3, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam stated that the servers likely contained items subject to US export controls.
The US government had introduced restrictions in 2022 to limit the sale of high-performance AI chips to China.
Concerns over the potential circumvention of these export controls surfaced in early 2025 after a Chinese start-up launched DeepSeek, an AI platform suspected to be powered by Nvidia chips.
The launch in January caused a sharp decline in US tech stocks, wiping approximately US$1 trillion off their value.
US authorities are investigating whether export-controlled Nvidia chips were improperly obtained.
Nvidia has stated that there is no indication DeepSeek acquired restricted products from Singapore.
Shanmugam said Singaporean authorities are investigating whether Malaysia was the final destination for the servers or if they were re-exported elsewhere.
He added that if false representations were made in Singapore regarding the servers’ final destination, it would constitute an offence under local laws.