Man handed 41 charges in relation to Nvidia chips case

SINGAPORE – A fifth person has been hauled to court over the Nvidia chips case.

Shi Bingzhe was handed 41 charges on Nov 13, all for acquiring the benefits of criminal conduct.

Charge sheets state that the Chinese national, who was the director of Superphi and chief operating officer of NJ Global Financial, allowed the companies to acquire 917 servers from Aperia International across 41 transactions between May 2024 and February 2025.

Shi and the companies had reasonable grounds to believe that those servers represented benefits from Aperia International’s criminal conduct, the police said in a statement on Nov 13.

Aperia International was among four companies charged in July with false representation in the same case.

Superphi faces six charges, while NJ Global Financial faces 35 charges for acquiring another person’s benefits from criminal conduct.

Both companies were charged alongside Shi. Lawyers for the 34-year-old and the two companies sought an adjournment to take further instructions.

The prosecutor offered Shi bail of $300,000 and called for him to be electronically tagged, citing the seriousness of his offences.

Shi’s lawyer, who argued against tagging, said his client had been cooperating with investigations.

The judge granted the prosecution’s request for Shi to be electronically tagged.

Money laundering

In their statement, police said that five individuals and six companies have been charged in this case, which involves fraud by false representation in the purchase of servers.

They said they would not hesitate to take firm action against businesses and individuals who engage in dishonest and criminal practices.

The other individuals charged are Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41; Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49; Chinese national Li Ming, 51; and Jenny Lim, 51.

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

Four firms allegedly linked to exporting computer servers that might contain Nvidia chips to Malaysia were charged in July with 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.

Wei was Aperia Group’s chief executive, Lim was its chief financial officer and Woon was head of sales.

Li worked at Luxuriate Your Life as the company’s controller.

In the wake of the investigation, 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 linked to the probe.

The case came to light 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.

The scrutiny heightened after Nvidia’s latest financial results showed that 22% of its third-quarter billings were to firms in the Republic, making Singapore the biggest buyer of its chips after the US.

On Feb 18, 2025, then Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng told Parliament that products sold by Nvidia to Singapore that were physically delivered here represent less than 1% of the chipmaker’s overall revenue.

Dr Tan also said that the remainder of Nvidia’s revenue billed to business entities in Singapore did not involve physical shipments into the country.

If convicted, Shi could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000, or both, for each charge.

Superphi and NJ Global Financial face a fine of up to $1 million or twice the value of the benefits from criminal conduct, whichever is higher, for each charge.

Their cases will be heard again in court on Jan 4, 2027.