Four men person been indicted connected national transgression charges related to a plot to export Nvidia chips worthy millions of dollars to China and Hong Kong successful usurpation of choky U.S. restrictions, court documents show.
One of the defendants, Brian Curtis Raymond, a 46-year-old nonmigratory of Huntsville, Alabama, was identified past week arsenic the main exertion serviceman of an artificial intelligence unreality institution successful Virginia that announced plans for a merger that would let its banal to beryllium publically traded.
That institution is not implicated successful the case, and told CNBC that his occupation connection has been rescinded.
Raymond and the different 3 defendants, each of whom were calved successful China oregon Hong Kong, are charged with conspiracy to interruption the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 successful transportation with the export and attempted export of the Nvidia chips to extremity users successful China and Hong Kong, aft archetypal shipping the chips to Malaysia and Thailand.
The defendants had not obtained a licence oregon authorization for specified exports from the Commerce Department, according to the indictment.
Chips sent to China arsenic portion of the alleged scheme, which began successful September 2023, included Nvidia's A100 and H200 graphics processing units and Hewlett Packard Enterprise products, according to the indictment filed connected Nov. 13 successful U.S. District Court successful Tampa, Florida.
The chips are highly restricted from exports due to the fact that of their usage successful artificial quality and supercomputing applications, the indictment notes.
The indictment was archetypal reported by CourtWatch, the tribunal papers aggregation quality tract founded by counterrorism researcher Seamus Hughes.
The indictment notes that China "is rapidly processing exascale supercomputing capabilities and has announced its intent to beryllium the satellite person successful AI by 2030."
"These capabilities are being utilized by the PRC [People's Republic of China] for its subject modernization efforts and successful transportation with the PRC's weapons plan and testing, including for weapons oregon wide destruction," the indictment says.
Raymond owned a exertion products distributor institution successful Huntsville, which was "licensed to merchantability Nvidia GPUs [graphics processing units], among different products," the indictment says.
Raymond's LinkedIn leafage says his company, Bitworks, is oregon was a "Nvidia Cloud Partner delivering H100, H200, and coming Blackwell / NVL72 clusters for customers."
Raymond and different co-defendant successful the case, Mathew Ho, would "cause freight forwarded to spot Nvidia GPUs to 3rd countries, knowing that the GPUs were yet destined for and would beryllium transhipped to the" People's Republic of China, the indictment alleges.
Ho, a 34-year-old who was calved successful Hong Kong, is simply a U.S. national who lives successful Florida. He is besides known arsenic Hon Ning Ho.
Ho was the registered cause of a institution successful Tampa called Janford Realtor, which, contempt its name, was ne'er progressive successful immoderate existent property transactions, but alternatively "served arsenic an intermediary for respective unlawful and unlicensed exports to" China of the precocious and highly-controlled chips, the indictment says.
As portion of the alleged conspiracy, Ho and Raymond would taxable documents related to the shipments that contained mendacious accusation astir the eventual cosignors for the chips, the worth of the chips and the licenses required for their export, the indictment says.
Raymond did not respond to requests for comment. His woman declined to comment.
Raymond's lawyer, Tae Lee, declined to remark connected the charges. Lee besides declined to accidental wherever Raymond is presently and whether helium has been arrested.
On Nov. 10, 3 days earlier the indictment was filed successful Tampa, Raymond was identified successful a press merchandise issued by Corvex, an Arlington, Virginia-based AI unreality company, arsenic its main exertion officer.
The property merchandise said Corvex and Movano Health, a publically traded institution that sells aesculapian wearables, had agreed to a merger that would alteration Corvex to go publically traded.
A Corvex spokesperson, successful a connection to CNBC aft being asked astir Raymond, said, "Corvex had nary portion successful the activities cited successful the Department of Justice's indictment."
"The idiosyncratic successful question is not an worker of Corvex. Previously a advisor to the company, helium was transitioning into an worker relation but that connection has been rescinded," the spokesperson said
In summation to the apical number of conspiracy, Raymond is charged with 2 counts of violations of the Export Control Reform Act successful transportation with an effort to export 50 Nvidia H200 GPUs to China done Thailand earlier this year, and the attempted export of astir 10 HP supercomputers containing Nvidia H100 GPUs to China done Thailand earlier this year.
He is besides charged with 1 number of smuggling goods from the United States related to the attempted export of the 50 Nvidia H200 chips.
Raymond is besides charged with 7 counts of wealth laundering related to ligament transfers totaling much than $3.4 cardinal from a slope relationship for a institution successful China to a slope relationship belonging to Raymond's institution successful Huntsville, and to Janford Realtor.
Ho and the 2 different defendants successful the case, Jing Chen and Cham Li, were each arrested successful caller days, according to tribunal documents.
Those 3 men, arsenic portion of the alleged conspiracy, would place customers successful China who wanted to bargain the Nvidia chips, the indictment says.
Ho and Chen, a 45-year-old besides known arsenic Harry Chen, were arrested successful Tampa. They are being held without bail.
In summation to the conspiracy count, Ho is charged with 9 wealth laundering counts successful transportation with $4 cardinal successful ligament transfers from the slope relationship for the Chinese institution to Janford Realtor and to Raymond's company.
He is besides charged with 4 counts of violating the Export Control Reform Act, and 3 counts of smuggling.
Ho's lawyer, Samuel Williams, declined to remark connected the case.
Chen is simply a Chinese nationalist who entered the U.S. connected a pupil visa and who resides successful Tampa.
He is charged with conspiracy, 1 number of violating the ECRA, and 1 number of smuggling.
Information astir Chen's lawyer was not publically available.
Li, besides known arsenic Tony Li, was arrested successful California and was owed to look successful Oakland national tribunal connected Thursday. Information astir Li's lawyer was not available.
A Chinese nationalist who lives successful California, Li was identified arsenic a manager of Janford Realtor, according to the indictment.
He is charged with a azygous number each of conspiracy, violating the ECRA and smuggling.
— CNBC's Samantha Subin contributed to this story.
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