SINGAPORE: Singapore has charged three men with fraud, according to court documents, in cases reportedly linked to the transfer of AI-powering Nvidia chips to China.
The charges come as the United States cracks down on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, seeking to retain a competitive edge over the technology.
Two Singaporeans and a Chinese national were charged with fraud on Thursday, the court documents showed.
They were among nine individuals arrested in raids across Singapore on Wednesday, police and the customs agency said in a joint statement.
Documentary and electronic records were seized during the raids, it said.
Local broadcaster CNA said it “understands the cases are linked to the alleged movement of Nvidia chips from Singapore to be used by Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek”.
The Straits Times newspaper also reported the case against the three men was “allegedly linked to chipmaker Nvidia”.
Neither outlet detailed the alleged ties to the US chipmaker.
Singapore police on Friday said they had nothing to add to their earlier statement, which did not mention Nvidia.
Bloomberg News reported in late January that US officials were probing whether DeepSeek bought advanced Nvidia semiconductors through third parties in Singapore, skirting Washington’s restrictions on sales of chips used for AI functions to China.
In January, DeepSeek released its R1 chatbot, shaking the global tech market and claiming its tool can match the capacity of top US AI products for a fraction of their costs.
‘Maintain business integrity’
Singapore authorities on Thursday charged two Singaporeans, identified as Aaron Woon, 41, and Alan Wei, 49, with conspiring to commit fraud last year by making false representations that certain “items” -- which were not identified -- would not be transferred to a person other than the authorised consignee.
A third individual, Chinese national Li Ming, 51, was charged with committing fraud by false representation.
According to the charge sheet, Li allegedly made false claims about the end user of the items.
The charge sheets did not mention Nvidia chips, DeepSeek or China.
Singapore’s second minister for trade and industry Tan See Leng told parliament last week that the country accounts for only a very small portion of Nvidia’s revenue.
“If a company in Singapore is engaged in deceptive or dishonest practices to evade export controls that it is subject to, we will investigate and we will take the appropriate action in accordance with Singapore laws,“ he said.
“It is in our national interest to secure access to leading edge technology and to maintain the integrity of our business environment within Singapore.”
The US commerce department in January placed 25 China-based entities, alongside two Singapore ones, on a trade blacklist.
Companies added to the so-called Entity List are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without a license.
Among those impacted was Sophgo Technologies, which was said to have been involved in Chinese firm Huawei accessing chips from Taiwanese giant TSMC.
