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Taiwanese prosecutors indicted nine people over an alleged scheme to illegally move Nvidia B300 GPU servers to China by exploiting Supermicro’s Taiwan sales channel, falsifying end-user information, and routing shipments through intermediaries in Indonesia, Japan, and Hong Kong. Investigators said Flying Tiger Tech posed as the end user for a 130-unit order placed through Albatron Technology, while colocation arrangements with Chief Telecom were used to help the deal pass inspection even though the site reportedly lacked the capacity to host the hardware. Prosecutors allege the operation also relied on insider assistance tied to Nvidia Taiwan and Supermicro Taiwan.
Authorities said 74 units were transferred in early 2026, producing roughly $21.21 million in profit, before a later 56-unit shipment was flagged over export-permit requirements. The case has drawn wider attention as an example of how AI server export controls can be bypassed through fraudulent paperwork and opaque intermediary firms, prompting increased scrutiny from US authorities and renewed debate over stricter compliance checks for cloud and hardware supply chains. Investigators also said they uncovered a separate fraud scheme involving Albatron’s general manager, a Supermicro manager, and another electronics company over installation work that was allegedly never performed.
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Of the first 74 approved Nvidia B300 units, 16 were reportedly sent directly to China in January 2026. Additional units were allegedly routed through Indonesia and through Japan and Hong Kong before reaching China.
Representatives from Supermicro and Nvidia reportedly inspected the Chief Telecom colocation site presented to support Flying Tiger Tech's order and found it operational but incapable of supporting 130 Nvidia B300 servers due to insufficient racks, power, and bandwidth.
Taiwan's Keelung District Prosecutors' Office indicted nine people over an alleged scheme to smuggle Nvidia B300 GPU servers to China through Supermicro's Taiwan sales channel. Prosecutors said the operation used whitelist abuse, false end-user claims, insider assistance, and transshipment through third countries to evade export controls.
Supermicro previously announced that it had terminated several employees following an internal investigation into U.S. smuggling allegations. The company said the probe found no evidence that senior management knew of the matter or that controlled products were sold to banned entities.
Prosecutors said Albatron's general manager also confessed in the separate installation-work fraud case involving Albatron, a Supermicro manager, and the electronics firm. The alleged participants split proceeds from the bogus NT$39 million billing.
In a separate fraud scheme tied to the case, the head of a small electronics firm reportedly turned himself in, confessed, and implicated other participants in exchange for leniency. Prosecutors said the scheme involved billing Albatron NT$39 million for installation work that was never performed.
The alleged smuggling scheme began to unravel when 56 additional units declared for Japan were flagged after customers requested a strategic high-tech commodities export permit. Prosecutors say the defendants then filed for an export permit using fake mockups of Supermicro's website, and the servers were ultimately blocked from leaving Taiwan.
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U.S. prosecutors charged three people tied to Super Micro, including co-founder Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, in an alleged scheme to divert Nvidia-powered AI servers to China in violation of U.S. export controls. Authorities said the group used a Southeast Asian front company, falsified shipping paperwork, and thousands of dummy server shells to conceal the movement of restricted hardware, with one method allegedly involving a hairdryer to transfer serial numbers from legitimate systems to decoy units. The Justice Department said the operation generated about **$2.5 billion** in sales since 2024; Liaw and Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun were arrested, while Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang remains a fugitive. Super Micro said it was **not named as a defendant**, placed Liaw and Chang on administrative leave, and cut ties with the contractor involved, while Nvidia said it supports strict export-control compliance and does not back unlawfully diverted systems. The allegations focus on misuse of Super Micro’s server supply chain, widely used to house Nvidia GPUs in data centers, and the market reacted sharply: Super Micro shares fell **25.3%** in premarket trading, wiping out roughly **$4.7 billion** in market value. The defendants face federal felony charges that could bring prison terms, fines, asset forfeiture, and bans on working in export-controlled industries.
Jul 2, 2026
US federal authorities have charged four individuals—Hon Ning Ho, Brian Curtis Raymond, Cham Li, and Jing Chen—with conspiring to illegally export restricted Nvidia AI chips and supercomputers to China. The indictment alleges that the group used shell companies, falsified invoices, and covert shipping routes through Malaysia and Thailand to bypass US export controls, which have been in place since October 2022 to prevent advanced AI hardware from reaching China. Prosecutors claim the operation involved at least four export attempts, two of which succeeded, resulting in the shipment of approximately 400 Nvidia A100 GPUs to China, while two other attempts involving HPE supercomputers with Nvidia H100 accelerators and 50 Nvidia H200 GPUs were disrupted by law enforcement. The US government asserts that these export controls are critical to limiting China's access to advanced AI technology, which could be used for military modernization and surveillance. The indictment highlights the use of a Florida-based sham real estate company, Janford Realtor LLC, as a front for the purchases, and details how the defendants allegedly doctored customs paperwork to facilitate the smuggling. The case is part of a broader crackdown on efforts to circumvent US technology restrictions, as authorities seek to prevent the transfer of high-performance computing hardware to Chinese entities.
Jun 29, 2026
US federal prosecutors have charged multiple individuals in connection with a smuggling operation that illegally exported at least $160 million worth of Nvidia H100 and H200 AI chips to China, circumventing US export controls. The operation, uncovered as part of Operation Gatekeeper, involved falsifying shipping documents and relabeling chip shipments with a fictional brand to evade detection. One Houston business owner, Alan Hao Hsu, pleaded guilty to smuggling and unlawful export activities, with his company, Hao Global, receiving over $50 million in wire transfers from China to fund the scheme. Two additional suspects, based in New York and Ontario, were also apprehended for their roles in facilitating the illegal shipments, which were coordinated with employees from a Hong Kong-based shipping company and a China-based AI tech firm. The smuggling ring's activities occurred against the backdrop of shifting US export policies, with the Trump administration recently relaxing some restrictions on older Nvidia Hopper-architecture chips, such as the H100 and H200, while maintaining strict controls on the latest Blackwell chips. The Department of Justice's crackdown highlights ongoing concerns about the transfer of advanced US AI technology to China, particularly for use in high-performance computing and generative AI applications with potential military implications. The case underscores the challenges of enforcing export controls amid evolving technology and international demand for cutting-edge AI hardware.
Jun 29, 2026