California man charged with smuggling more than US$300 million in Nvidia AI servers to China
Prosecutors say the chips were routed through Malaysia and Singapore using shell companies.
A San Gabriel, Calif., man was arrested on Thursday on a federal indictment charging him with smuggling more than US$300 million worth of export-controlled servers containing Nvidia AI chips to China, Business Insider and Quartz reported.
Court records identify the man as Yiu Kong Lui, 38. He faces charges of violating export controls, smuggling and money laundering, and has not yet entered a plea, according to Business Insider.
Prosecutors allege he worked with co-conspirators who operated shell companies to move the chips to Malaysia or Singapore and then into China, and that he told U.S. companies the chips would not end up in China. The alleged operation ran from 2023 until August, and his company was paid more than US$180 million by Malaysian shipping companies, prosecutors said.
"Controlling the export of advanced AI technology is critical to safeguarding our national security," said Roman Rozhavsky, an assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence and espionage division.
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