Nvidia chips case: 4 firms face charges over false representation accusations; $56m in assets seized

SINGAPORE — Four firms allegedly linked to the export of computer servers that might contain Nvidia chips to Malaysia are facing charges 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.

This comes 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.

Luxuriate Your Life was charged on July 1, while the other three firms will be charged on July 6.

Three individuals were also hauled to court on July 1 and charged with various offences, including fraud and money laundering.

They are Aperia Group's chief financial officer Jenny Lim, 51; head of sales Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41; and Luxuriate Your Life controller Li Ming, 52.

The police said in a statement on July 1 that Alan Wei Zhaolun, 50, Aperia Group's chief executive, will also face charges for fraud and money laundering on July 6.

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 under investigation.

On July 1, Lim and Woon were handed charges for fraud and money laundering, while Li was charged with fraud and fraudulent trading.

The fraud charges state that Wei, Lim and Woon allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to commit fraud relating to the purchase of servers from three suppliers: Dell, Super Micro Computer and Asus.

The charges asserted that between November 2023 and February 2025, they falsely represented in communications to the suppliers that one of the Aperia Group companies would be the end user of the servers.

Lim and Woon face one charge each for acquiring around $1.2 million in their personal bank accounts, which, in part, represents benefits from criminal conduct amounting to around $1 million.

Li is also accused of committing fraud in communications with Super Micro on two occasions in November 2023.

The police said Li allegedly falsely represented that he was an employee of Luxuriate Your Life.

He also allegedly made false representations that Luxuriate Your Life would hold the servers it intended to purchase from Super Micro and lease them to other companies.

Wei, Woon and Li were first charged in February 2025 with fraud by false representation in relation to purchases of servers. Lim was also charged with fraud as part of the same investigation in April 2026.

In the statement, the police said: "We hold a zero-tolerance stance towards such offences and will act resolutely against those — whether businesses or individuals - who violate our laws, and safeguard Singapore's integrity as a trusted global financial and business hub underpinned by the rule of law."

Preliminary investigations showed that servers from US firms Dell and Super Micro, possibly embedded with Nvidia AI chips, were sent to Singapore-based companies before being exported to Malaysia.

The probe came after an anonymous tip-off. The authorities said the servers most likely contained items subject to US export controls.

In 2022, the US government imposed a number of export controls to restrict the sale of high-performance AI chips to China.

Questions were raised in the US in 2025 when a Chinese start-up launched DeepSeek, an artificial intelligence platform that allegedly used chips from Nvidia.

The launch of DeepSeek in January that year wiped about US$1 trillion (S$1.3 trillion) off the value of US tech stocks.

The authorities in the US are also looking into the potential circumvention of its export controls for advanced Nvidia chips.

[[nid:737585]]

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.