Singaporean authorities said yesterday they had seized a luxury bungalow and charged four people with money laundering as part of an investigation linked to the alleged movement of Nvidia chips subject to US export controls.
In a statement, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said it had issued a “prohibition order” against a residence valued at around S$55 million ($42.4 million) and seized around S$1 million in funds as part of fraud investigations. The order means the property cannot be sold or transferred while it is in effect.
The investigation concerns two Singaporeans, Aaron Woon and Alan Wei, charged in February 2025 with criminal conspiracy to commit fraud, and a Chinese national named Li Ming, charged at the same time with fraud by false declaration. In April this year, a fourth defendant, Jenny Lim, was charged in connection with the case.
At the time of the alleged offenses, Woon, Wei and Lim were key executives of three companies, Aperia International, A-Speed Infotech and Aperia Cloud Services – collectively known as Aperia Group – which allegedly concealed the true end user of the servers. Separately, investigations revealed that Li was the controller of another company, Luxuriate Your Life, which was allegedly involved in the scheme.
Authorities say the servers in question, which could contain advanced Nvidia AI chips, were shipped from Singapore to Malaysia. Although it is unclear whether this was their final destination, some media outlets suggested they could be destined for China.
Yesterday, police also announced additional fraud and money laundering charges against the defendants. Lim and Woon were each charged with seven new charges, while Wei is expected to receive seven new charges on July 6, the SPF said. The fraud charges allege that the three men “engaged in a conspiracy to commit fraud relating to the purchase of servers” from US companies Dell, Super Micro Computer and Asus. The charges allege that between November 2023 and February 2025, the trio “falsely represented, in their communications with these vendors, that one of the Aperia Group companies would be the end user of the servers.”
The four companies will also face a total of eight charges of fraud by misrepresentation which are expected to be announced on July 6, which the FPS says is “the first case of legal entities being prosecuted in connection with these investigations”.
Lim and Woon were also charged with money laundering, after “each acquiring approximately SG$1.2 million in their personal bank accounts”, underscoring the benefits of criminal conduct, police said. Wei faces three counts of money laundering related to the aforementioned seized mansion, as well as an additional sum of S$5.8 which was deposited into his personal account and which police believe was partly profits from criminal conduct.
In addition to this, Li was also charged with additional fraud relating to a similar misrepresentation of the end user of the servers that Luxuriate Your Life intended to purchase from the American company Super Micro.
The Singapore investigation aims to close loopholes in the export control regime that U.S. President Joe Biden imposed on the most sophisticated AI chips, as well as the tools used to produce them. The aim of these restrictions was to cripple China’s efforts to develop its own chip manufacturing industry and prevent it from developing AI capabilities that could give the country a military advantage.
In February last year, the same month that saw the first arrests in the chip smuggling case, it was reported that the US Commerce Department was opening an investigation into whether Chinese AI company DeepSeek had access to restricted Nvidia chips and whether those chips came from third parties in countries like Malaysia and Singapore.
Singapore said it was not aware of any smuggling into the country, but would come down hard on any person or entity found to be breaking the law – a stance the SPF reiterated in yesterday’s statement.
“Police take a zero-tolerance stance towards such offenses and will take resolute action against those, whether businesses or individuals, who violate our laws, and safeguard the integrity of Singapore as a trusted global financial and trade hub, underpinned by the rule of law,” the statement said.
Malaysia also promised to close any loopholes preventing the movement of advanced semiconductors within its territory. Last week, Malaysian authorities said they had foiled an attempt to smuggle advanced AI chips through the country’s main airport, seizing 72 servers worth nearly $13 million.