A senior vice president of and two associates have been charged in the United States with conspiring to smuggle billions of dollars’ worth of computer servers equipped with advanced chips to in violation of U.S. export control laws.
Federal prosecutors said the defendants diverted large quantities of high-performance servers assembled in the U.S. to China between 2024 and 2025. Investigators allege they used fabricated documents, staged equipment to pass audits and relied on a pass-through company to conceal their activities and true customers.
The accused include Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, 71, a U.S. citizen and senior vice president and board member of Super Micro Computer; Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun, 44, a company contractor; and Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, a Taiwan-based sales manager who remains at large. Liaw was arrested in California and released on bail, while Sun was held pending a bail hearing.
According to court papers, Liaw and Chang directed a Southeast Asian firm to place about $2.5 billion in server orders from the California-based company, with at least $510 million later diverted to China.
Super Micro said the alleged conduct violated company policies and that it is cooperating with investigators. Nvidia said it maintains strict compliance measures and does not support systems diverted in breach of export regulations.