SINGAPORE: Investigations have revealed that the total amount involved in the offences for three men accused of fraud over the movement of Nvidia chips is in the region of US$390 million (S$519 million). 

The prosecution on Thursday (Mar 13) revealed the sum related to the cases of Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, Alan Wei Zhaolun, 48, and Chinese national Li Ming, 51.

Woon and Wei are accused of being in a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud on two suppliers of servers, Dell and Super Micro, involving about US$250 million. 

The pair are said to have made false representations in 2024 that the items would not be transferred to a person other than the "authorised ultimate consignee of end users".

Li is said to have committed fraud on Super Micro and accessed a corporate bank account without authorisation to make and receive transfers for company Luxuriate Your Life. The amount in his alleged offences is around US$140 million, said the prosecution during a further mention of the cases. 

The three were among nine people arrested during raids by the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Customs in February, after media reports stated that intermediaries in the country were involved in the illegal movement of Nvidia chips to China, bypassing US export controls. 

The three men have been in remand since their charging and appeared in court via videolink.

BAIL AMOUNTS

On Thursday, the prosecution cited the high amounts involved as the basis for offering bail of S$600,000 for Woon, S$800,000 for Wei and S$1 million for Li. 

The prosecution also sought an eight-week adjournment for investigations to be concluded and asked for conditions to be imposed alongside bail, including electronic tagging for Li with exclusion zones in place. 

With the exclusion, Li will not be able to visit immigration points such as Changi Airport, as well as the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints. 

Li's lawyer Wendall Wong did not object to the bail amount or conditions, while Woon and Wei's lawyers protested the high amounts. 

Woon's lawyer Sanjiv Kumar Rajan said bail should be fixed at S$400,000, adding that his client had not previously offended and that his roots were in Singapore. 

Wei's lawyer Shashi Nathan said he had not heard the b...