A Singapore judge granted bail to three men suspected of cheating a supplier of server computers that could contain NVIDIA chips affected by US export rules banning sales to certain countries as a route to be sold to Chinese organisations.
The move comes nearly two weeks since three City state men were charged with smuggling nvidia chips and committing fraud against Dell and Super Micro by mistakenly stating where the server is.
Singapore’s prosecutors said the fraud case included servers provided by Singaporean companies and then moved to Malaysia, with transactions totaling around $390 million, according to a Reuters report. It is unclear what the final destination will be for these servers.
The bail for the two men in Singapore was set at S$800,000 ($600,000) and S$600,000 respectively, while the third man, a Chinese citizen, was set at S$1 million. The next court hearing will be held on May 2nd.
Prosecutors sought certain conditions, including requesting an eight-week delay to complete the investigation, banning men from airports and border checkpoints, and banning cases from discussing if they are released on bail per Bloomberg. Chinese men reportedly must wear electronic surveillance devices.
According to Nvidia’s latest annual report, Singapore accounted for 18% of revenue for the fiscal year ended January 28, while shipments to the country accounted for less than 2% of revenue.
China’s Deepseek attracted global attention in the AI industry in January for its advanced technology and cost-effective solutions, leading to growing concerns about how and where chips should be sourced. Deepseek’s AI is powered by Nvidia’s chips despite efforts to limit exports and prevent the technology from being used in China.
Last week, Malaysia said it needed “necessary actions” against Malaysian companies involved in a fraud case related to the alleged transfer of Nvidia chips from Singapore to China.