Supermicro fired staff after probe into $2.5 billion GPUs-to-China smuggling operation
Policies and code of conduct breached
Supermicro has dismissed several employees following an investigation into a $2.5 billion scheme allegedly involving the shipment of Nvidia GPUs to China, in violation of US export controls. In March, US prosecutors indicted Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw, Taiwan-based executive Ruei-Tsang Steven Chang, and broker Ting-Wei Willy Sun for conspiring to violate the Export Controls Reform Act, smuggle goods, and defraud the US government.
Supermicro stated on Thursday that none of the company's current senior management were aware of the alleged diversion scheme or any product diversion. However, the investigation revealed that some staff failed to properly implement US export controls, leading to dismissals in sales, technical support, and business development functions for violating company policies or the code of conduct.
Supermicro's board adopted the investigation's recommendations to enhance its export compliance program and has already implemented some of them. This admission adds to Supermicro's history of governance issues, including two de-listing near-misses due to accounting issues, another unauthorized export probe, and challenges in capitalizing on the AI boom.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
