Post by : Meena Ariff

Photo: Reuters

Singapore is investigating a big fraud case involving three men and Nvidia computer chips worth about US$390 million (RM1.65 billion). The men are Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 40, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, and Chinese national Li Ming, 51. They were charged four months ago.

On Friday, the court hearing was held, but the three men did not attend. The prosecutors asked for eight more weeks to continue their investigation. The Deputy Public Prosecutor, Phoebe Tan, told the court that the police are still looking for important information and the investigation is not ready for the next step.

She said police have been working hard, doing 10 interviews since the last hearing on May 2. They are also waiting for evidence from other countries. Police have checked 35 out of 53 electronic devices so far and are studying some new documents that were recently found.

Li Ming’s lawyer, Andrew Chua, asked why the case needed to be delayed again and requested to start the pre-trial conference. But the prosecutor said starting now would be too early because new evidence might change the charges. In the end, Li’s lawyer agreed to wait, and the court decided to adjourn the case to August 22.

Aaron Woon and Alan Wei were accused of cheating big companies like Dell and Super Micro last year. They allegedly lied about where server equipment would go, saying it would not be sent to places that were not allowed. Li Ming is accused of cheating Super Micro in 2023 and using someone else’s OCBC corporate bank account without permission for his own company, Luxuriate Your Life.

These three men were among nine people arrested in February. The police raided places in Singapore because they suspected that these people were trying to send Nvidia chips to China without permission, breaking US export rules.

The case is still being investigated, and the court will review it again in August.