The Trump Justice Department has arrested a California technology-company owner accused of smuggling more than $300 million in restricted American computer servers to China.
Prosecutors say the operation used false paperwork and stops in other countries to get around U.S. export controls.
That is the central issue here: a shipment’s first destination is not necessarily its final customer.
The national-security division announced the arrest while emphasizing the strategic importance of the chips involved:
The Justice Department identifies the defendant as Greg Lui, 38, of San Gabriel, also known as Yiu Kong Lui; he owns Earthmade Computer Inc. in City of Industry.
A grand jury returned the indictment September 29. The three charges cover an alleged export-control conspiracy, outbound smuggling, and a money-laundering conspiracy.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli described the case as an effort to keep advanced American technology from strengthening adversaries’ military capabilities. FBI counterintelligence official Roman Rozhavsky alleged that the sales reached the Chinese government.
Commerce export-enforcement investigators, Defense Criminal Investigative Service agents, and the FBI are investigating the case. Lui remains presumed innocent, and the indictment is an allegation the government must prove in court.
The maximum penalties listed are 20 years on each conspiracy count and 10 years for smuggling. They are statutory ceilings, not an announced sentence.
Essayli’s statement explains why prosecutors view the alleged transactions as a national-security case:
The Justice Department outlines an alleged 2023–2024 routing scheme through Malaysia and Singapore. Manufacturers allegedly received false information about the servers’ end users and destinations, while Lui knew the ultimate users were in China.
Earthmade allegedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysian shipping companies between January and October 2024. That payment figure is separate from the more-than-$300-million value prosecutors assign to the alleged smuggling scheme.
The announcement traces one shipment: a January 2024 order for 27 servers costing approximately $7.614 million, sent from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur. The packing list warned that the equipment could not go to China without a license.
A March email allegedly confirmed those 27 servers had been forwarded to a buyer in China. Prosecutors are pointing to that sequence as evidence of the real destination.
The numbers are large, but the paperwork matters just as much. A restriction accomplishes little if officials cannot establish who ultimately receives the equipment.
The local federal prosecutor’s office separately confirmed the arrest and linked its detailed account of the charges:
For the Trump administration, this case puts export enforcement where it belongs: tracing sensitive American technology all the way to its actual destination.
Now comes the courtroom test. The government has laid out a serious allegation; it still has to turn the transaction records into proof.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post Trump DOJ Arrests California Tech Owner In Alleged $300 Million China Smuggling Scheme appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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