Overview
- Prosecutors named Hon Ning Ho, Brian Curtis Raymond, Cham Li, and Jing Chen, with arrests and court appearances in federal districts in Florida, Alabama, and California.
- The indictment alleges two completed shipments totaling about 400 Nvidia A100 GPUs to China between October 2024 and January 2025, with later attempts to send 50 H200 GPUs and ten HPE systems with H100s disrupted by law enforcement.
- Investigators say the group used a Tampa shell company, Janford Realtor LLC, falsified contracts and shipping papers, and routed goods through Malaysia and Thailand, funded by roughly $3.89 million in wires from Chinese companies.
- Authorities report the seizure in Tampa of 50 Nvidia H200 GPUs and will seek forfeiture of those chips as property intended for unlawful export.
- Charges include conspiracy and multiple counts under the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling, and money laundering, carrying potential sentences of up to 20 years per ECRA or money laundering count and up to 10 years for smuggling; Ho and Chen are being held without bail, Li faces a detention hearing in California, and Raymond has been released on bond.