Overview
- An unsealed indictment alleges two shipments totaling about 400 Nvidia A100 GPUs reached China between October 2024 and January 2025, while attempts to send 10 HPE supercomputers with H100s and 50 H200 GPUs were stopped by law enforcement.
- The defendants are Hon Ning “Mathew” Ho of Tampa, Brian Curtis Raymond of Huntsville, Cham “Tony” Li of San Leandro, and Jing “Harry” Chen of Tampa, with Ho and Chen in custody, Li detained pending a hearing, and Raymond released on bond.
- Prosecutors say the group used Janford Realtor LLC as a front, falsified export paperwork, and concealed end users by transshipping through Malaysia and Thailand without obtaining required Commerce Department licenses.
- Charges include conspiracy and substantive counts under the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling, and money laundering, carrying statutory maximums of up to 20 years per ECRA and money-laundering count and 10 years for smuggling.
- The Justice Department says it will seek forfeiture of 50 seized H200 GPUs, and the case has prompted renewed calls in Congress for chip-tracking legislation to curb diversion of advanced U.S. semiconductors.