Taiwan indicts Nvidia manager after chip smuggling probe
The individual is part of a group that allegedly smuggled advanced AI chips into China
Nine individuals have been indicted by Taiwan's Keelung District Prosecutors Office in an ongoing investigation into the illegal smuggling of Nvidia B300 GPUs to China. The indictment reveals a five-step scheme designed to subvert various export restrictions. Supermicro's Taiwan subsidiary only sells its B300 systems to whitelisted buyers who must sign an agreement to prevent re-export or sale to sanctioned parties.
Supermicro distributor Albatron Technology obtained whitelist status and placed a 130-unit order, declaring it as the end user for the servers. To pass inspection, Flying Tiger Tech leased colocation space from Chief Telecom and presented a quotation instead of an actual lease. The insiders, likely parties working within the supply chain, played a role in facilitating the transaction.
One individual, an Nvidia Taiwan sales manager, pushed the quota through. A Supermicro Taiwan manager reportedly caught wind of the real destination of the servers but accepted commissions instead of speaking up. Of the initial order, sixteen units were sent directly to China, fifty were sent to Indonesia and then transshipped to China, and eight went to a Japanese entity before reaching Hong Kong and China.
The scheme was halted after 56 units were flagged by customers demanding a strategic high-tech commodities export permit. The defendants filed for an export permit, including fake mockups of Supermicro's website. One defendant, Albatron's GM, turned himself in, confessing to the scheme and naming other participants in exchange for leniency.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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