Prosecutors say a California tech executive, Yiu Kong (Greg) Lui, is arrested and charged in connection with an alleged smuggling scheme involving Nvidia AI chips worth about $300 million. The charges include conspiracy, smuggling, and money laundering, and the alleged conduct runs from 2023 to 2024.
According to multiple outlets, the government alleges Lui procures servers containing Nvidia GPUs from U.S. manufacturers and then sends the restricted hardware to China using intermediary routes. One report says the shipments go through Singapore and Malaysia, while another says Lui and co-conspirators worked with foreign shipping companies to obtain the chips. Prosecutors characterize the alleged plan as involving steps intended to trick or bypass systems that govern restricted exports.
The outlets differ mainly in how they describe the mechanics of the logistics and the specific intermediaries involved, but they agree on the central allegations: a California-based defendant is accused of arranging procurement in the United States and export diversion to China of restricted AI hardware.
