KUALA LUMPUR: A fifth person has been charged in connection with a Singapore investigation into the alleged fraudulent acquisition and export of servers potentially containing Nvidia chips.
Chinese national Shi Bingzhe, 34, was handed 41 charges today for allegedly acquiring benefits from criminal conduct, according to The Straits Times.
Court documents stated that Shi, a director of Superphi and chief operating officer of NJ Global Financial, had allowed the companies to acquire 917 servers from Aperia International through 41 transactions between May 2024 and February 2025, despite having reasonable grounds to believe the servers represented proceeds of criminal conduct.
Superphi faces six charges, while NJ Global Financial faces 35. Both companies were charged alongside Shi.
The prosecution offered Shi bail of S$300,000 (RM952,514) and sought electronic tagging, citing the seriousness of the offences. The court granted the tagging request despite objections from his lawyer, who said Shi had cooperated with investigations. The case will be heard again on Jan 4, 2027.
Police said five individuals and six companies have now been charged in connection with the case, which involves alleged fraud through false representations in server purchases.
The other individuals charged are Aaron Woon Guo Jie, Alan Wei Zhaolun, Li Ming and Jenny Lim. Their alleged offences include fraud, money laundering and fraudulent trading.
Four companies – Aperia International, A-Speed Infotech, Aperia Cloud Services (II) and Luxuriate Your Life – were charged in July over alleged false representations.
The investigation attracted attention following US scrutiny of whether Chinese AI firm DeepSeek had circumvented export restrictions on advanced Nvidia chips through third-party purchases in countries including Singapore.
If convicted, Shi faces up to 10 years' imprisonment, a fine of up to S$500,000, or both, for each charge.