**US Attorney's Office Charges Three Individuals with Illegally Exporting NVIDIA GPUs to China** The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has charged three individuals with violating the Export Control Reform Act by illegally exporting NVIDIA GPUs to China. According to the indictment, Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, and Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, two employees and one contractor of US IT company Super Micro Computer, allegedly circumvented export control laws by creating fake orders for servers with NVIDIA chips from Southeast Asian companies, which were then secretly sent to China. **Multi-Step Scheme Involving Fake Orders and Dummy Servers** The DOJ claims that Liaw, Chang, and Sun facilitated the illegal purchase of $2.5 billion worth of servers between 2024 and 2025 in direct violation of US export laws. The scheme involved a multi-step process where the individuals created fake orders for servers with NVIDIA chips, staged dummy servers to be inspected by Super Micro Computer's compliance team, and falsified records to conceal the true destination of the servers. The servers were then repackaged in Taiwan by a logistics company and sent to China. **Super Micro Computer Distances Itself from the Individuals Involved** Super Micro Computer has released a statement announcing that it is distancing itself from Liaw, Chang, and Sun. The company has placed the two employees on administrative leave and terminated its relationship with the contractor, effective immediately. In a statement, the company wrote, *"The individuals charged are Yih-Shyan 'Wally' Liaw, Senior Vice President of Business Development and a member of the Company's Board of Directors; Ruei-Tsang 'Steven' Chang, a sales manager in Taiwan; and Ting-Wei 'Willy' Sun, a contractor."* **Previous Attempts to Illegally Export NVIDIA's Products** This is not the first time individuals have attempted to illegally smuggle NVIDIA's products out of the US. According to reports, $1 billion worth of NVIDIA's AI chips were illegally sold in the three months after the Trump administration tightened export controls. Additionally, in December 2025, Texas authorities seized more than $50 million worth of NVIDIA GPUs bound for China. The demand for AI and the hardware that makes it possible continues to drive attempts to circumvent export control laws.