TAMPA, Fla. — The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO-MDFL) said two Tampa residents have been arrested and charged for allegedly exporting artificial intelligence technology to China.
The release said two U.S. citizens and two nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been charged with a conspiracy to illegally export NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which have artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to the PRC.
Officials said they arrested 34-year-old Hon Ning Ho, aka “Mathew Ho,” a U.S. citizen residing in Tampa; 46-year old Brian Curtis Raymond, a U.S. citizen residing in Huntsville, Alabama; 38-year-old Cham Li, aka “Tony Li,” a PRC national residing in San Leandro, California, and 45-year-old Jing Chen, aka “Harry Chen,” a PRC national on F-1 non-immigrant student visa also residing in Tampa.
Officials said they arrested Ho, Chen and Raymond on Nov. 19 and Li was arrested on Nov. 20.
The Justice Department officials allege that the four individuals conspired to illegally export advanced Nvidia graphics processing units, or GPUs, to China through Malaysia and Thailand.
"In furtherance of the conspiracy, the conspirators used Janford Realtor, LLC—a Tampa, Florida-based company owned and controlled by Ho and Li—as a front to purchase and then illegally export controlled GPUs to the PRC," said the release from USAO-MDFL.
The release says the indictment alleges Janford Realtor, LLC was never involved in any real estate transactions and Raymond, through his Alabama-based electronics company, supplied NVIDIA GPUs to Ho and others for illegal export to the PRC as part of the conspiracy.
The indictment alleges none of the conspirators ever sought or obtained a license for any of these exports and lied about the intended destination of the GPUs. The indictment further alleges that the conspirators received over $3.89 million in wire transfers from the PRC.
Read the full release from the USAO-MDFL.
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