Fifth person charged in Singapore over alleged fraud conspiracy linked to Nvidia chips
Shi Bingzhe was handed 41 charges for allegedly consenting to money laundering offences committed by two companies where he was a key officer.
The State Courts of Singapore. (File photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)
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SINGAPORE: A fifth person was charged in court on Friday (Nov 13) over an alleged fraud conspiracy linked to Nvidia chips.
Shi Bingzhe, 34, was handed 41 charges under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act for allegedly consenting to money laundering offences committed by two companies where he was a key officer.
Shi, a Chinese national, is the latest in a string of people to face prosecution over the alleged conspiracy.
Four other people were charged before him: Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 42, Alan Wei Zhaolun, 50, Li Ming, 52, and Jenny Lim, 52. Their cases are pending.
CNA understands that the cases are linked to the alleged movement of Nvidia chips.
Woon, Wei and Li, who were first charged in February 2025, were among nine people arrested during raids by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Singapore Customs.
The raids came on the back of media reports that claimed intermediaries in Singapore were involved in the illegal movement of Nvidia chips to China, bypassing US export controls.
The US Commerce Department had reportedly been looking into whether DeepSeek – the Chinese company whose artificial intelligence (AI) model rocked the tech world – had been using US chips that were not allowed to be shipped to China.
Shi's charges state that he was the chief operating officer of NJ Global Financial and a director of Superphi at the time of the alleged offences in 2024 and 2025.
According to an SPF press release on Friday, Superphi and NJ Global acquired a total of 917 servers from technology company Aperia International in 41 transactions between May 2024 and February 2025, with Shi's consent. According to charge sheets, the servers, which included those from Dell, ASUS and SuperMicro, were worth more than US$100 million (S$129 million).
The companies allegedly had reasonable grounds to believe that the servers represented benefits from Aperia International's criminal conduct, namely fraud by false representation.
Lim was allegedly the chief financial officer of Aperia International. Wei was Aperia's chief executive officer, while Woon was its head of sales, according to the authorities in previous releases.
Superphi and NJ Global were charged alongside Shi. Superphi faces six charges, while NJ Global faces 35 charges, under the same Act for acquiring another person's benefits from criminal conduct.
Shi and the two companies' cases will return to court on Jan 4.
Apart from the five individuals, six companies, including the two companies linked to Shi and Aperia International, have been charged in court in connection with the case.
"The police take a serious view of the offences and will not hesitate to take firm action against businesses and individuals who engage in dishonest and criminal practices that contravene our laws, to safeguard Singapore's reputation as a trusted international financial and business hub underpinned by the rule of law," SPF said.
If convicted, Shi faces a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to S$500,000, or both, for each charge.
If convicted, Superphi and NJ Global each face a fine of up to S$1 million or twice the value of the benefits from criminal conduct, whichever is higher, for each charge.
