A local case of fraud in Singapore might be the tip of the iceberg for some international AI intrigue. According to Reuters, three people were charged with fraud for allegedly lying about the delivery of items to a server supplier. Local media reports indicate that those “items” may have been high-end Nvidia chips that may have gotten rerouted to Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek.
On the surface, the charges are pretty vague, albeit serious. Singaporeans identified as Aaron Woon Guo Jie and Alan Wei Zhaolun, along with Chinese national Li Ming were charged by the city-state’s authorities for allegedly lying about supplying unidentified items to a server company—crimes that carry a penalty of up to 20 years in jail and a potential fine. But just beneath the surface appears to be a broader conspiracy.
Per Reuters, Singapore’s law enforcement has arrested a total of nine people in a joint operation carried out with customs. Those raids hit 22 different locations, where authorities reportedly seized documents and electronic records. And then there are the local media reports, which Reuters did not specifically confirm, that link the supposed fraudsters to DeepSeek.
According to a report from Channel News Asia, the “items” in the fraud case were Nvidia chips, and their real final destination was allegedly China’s AI firm that caused a whole lot of commotion earlier this year when it dropped a model that produced high-end performance despite spending significantly less on training. That would be a pretty big deal, considering those Nvidia chips are not allowed to be shipped to China due to sanctions against the nation.
The scheme, if it proves to be what authorities seem to think it is, wouldn’t be a total shock but more a confirmation of what some have believed to be happening for quite some time. Shortly after DeepSeek revealed its open-source AI model and chatbot, the US Department of Commerce started investigating whether the company was using chips that it wasn’t supposed to have access to. Reuters reported last year that the Chinese military, state-run artificial intelligence research organizations, and universities have all purchased semiconductors that are supposed to be restricted for export by the US.
The news of the arrests in Singapore comes just one month after officials in the US announced they were specifically probing whether DeepSeek was working with third parties in Singapore to get its hands on Nvidia chips. If the reports are to be believed, it appears they may have found their answer.
