Authorities in Taiwan announced Thursday they are pursuing criminal charges against three individuals suspected of orchestrating an illegal scheme to ship advanced artificial intelligence servers to China, defying strict U.S. trade restrictions.
The U.S. Justice Department previously filed charges in March against three individuals connected to Super Micro, including one of the company’s co-founders, alleging they facilitated the smuggling of more than $2.5 billion worth of American AI technology to China in breach of export regulations.
Legal officials from Keelung, a city in northern Taiwan, released a statement indicating the three suspects under investigation were aware that Super Micro’s AI servers fell under stringent U.S. export restrictions and were prohibited from sale to mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
According to prosecutors, the defendants allegedly worked together to acquire the servers within Taiwan and then used fraudulent paperwork and false information to export them to China in pursuit of “huge illegal profits.”
Neither Super Micro nor Nvidia provided immediate responses to requests for comment from Reuters. Both corporations have previously stated their commitment to following U.S. export regulations.
Prosecutors revealed that on Wednesday, they instructed Taiwan’s coast guard to conduct searches at 12 different sites, including the homes of the three suspects and associated business locations.
Officials confiscated evidence during the raids and either detained or called in the three defendants along with related witnesses for interrogation.
Taiwan serves as a semiconductor industry leader and is the primary manufacturer of the sophisticated chips that drive artificial intelligence development.
The island nation maintains stringent regulations designed to block the transfer of advanced technology and technical expertise to China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory and has intensified political and military pressure on Taiwan’s democratically elected leadership. Taiwan firmly rejects China’s territorial claims.
