Singapore charges fifth person in AI-server fraud case

Singapore police on Nov. 13 charged Shi Bingzhe and two companies with money-laundering offences tied to an alleged server-fraud scheme. Authorities say Shi faces 41 charges over alleged conduct while he was a key officer of the companies.

Police allege that Superphi Pte Ltd and NJ Global Financial Pte Ltd acquired 917 servers from Aperia International in 41 transactions between May 2024 and February 2025. The companies allegedly had reasonable grounds to believe the equipment represented benefits from Aperia’s criminal conduct, which authorities described as fraud by false representation.

Shi was a director of Superphi and chief operating officer of NJ Global Financial at the time of the alleged conduct. Superphi faces six charges; NJ Global Financial faces 35. Authorities allege Shi consented to the companies’ commission of the offences. If convicted, he could receive up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to S$500,000, or both, on each charge. Each company could be fined up to S$1 million or twice the value of the alleged criminal benefits, whichever is higher, per charge.

The latest action brings the case to five charged individuals and six charged companies, according to police. Aperia International was separately charged in July 2026 under Singapore’s Penal Code.

The Nov. 13 charging notice does not allege that Shi breached U.S. export controls or identify Nvidia hardware as an element of the offences. In March 2025, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said officials assessed that the servers might contain Nvidia chips and knew they had gone to Malaysia. The Ministry of Home Affairs said on Nov. 12 that police were still investigating whether servers exported through Singapore to Malaysia were later routed elsewhere.