A founder of a company that serves as a high performance computer organization that uses artificial intelligence has conspired to divert billions of dollars’ worth of their equipment to China. This is a major violation of U.S. export controls.
The company co-founder, Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, also served as the senior vice president of business development at Supermicro. Liaw is alleged to have worked with two of the others to carry out the scheme. One of those people is Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, who is a general manager in the company’s Taiwan office. The other being, Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun, who is described, in the indictment, as a third-party broker and “fixer.”
The three defendants, who had been allegedly using a company base in Southeast Asia, created a pass-through to give all of their transactions the appearance of legitimate commercial activity. “Yih-Shyan Liaw, Ruei-Tsang Chang, and Ting-Wei Sun allegedly defrauded the United States by conspiring to divert significant quantities of servers with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to Chinese customers,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Barnacle in a statement.
“As alleged in the Indictment, the defendants participated in a systematic scheme to divert massive quantities of U.S. artificial intelligence technology to customers in China,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “They did so through a tangled web of lies, obfuscation, and concealment–all to drive sales and generate revenues in violation of U.S. law. Diversion schemes like those disrupted today generate billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains and pose a direct threat to U.S. national security.” “The conduct by these individuals alleged in the indictment is a contravention of the Company’s policies and compliance controls, including efforts to circumvent applicable export control laws and regulations,” the company said in a statement. “Supermicro maintains a robust compliance program and is committed to full adherence to all applicable U.S. export and re-export control laws and regulations.