DOJ says Supermicro export scheme used dummy servers and a hair dryer to hide NVIDIA GPU AI shipments
Federal prosecutors have charged Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, and Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun in an alleged scheme to divert about $2.5 billion worth of AI servers with restricted U.S. technology to China. Liaw and Sun were arrested on March 19, 2026, while Chang remains a fugitive. Supermicro itself was not named as a defendant, and the DOJ says the case remains an allegation at this stage.
According to the indictment, the group allegedly used a Southeast Asian company as the paper buyer, then moved servers assembled in the United States through Taiwan and onward to China after repackaging them in unmarked boxes. Prosecutors say false records were used to make the Southeast Asian company look like the real end user. The DOJ also says at least $510 million worth of servers were diverted between late April and mid-May 2025 alone, which is the sort of pace that tends to get noticed by people with badges.
I’m sorry but this super micro thing is awful but parts of it are genuinely hilarious
They literally used a hair dryer to move serial numbers from real servers to dummy servers to throw in a warehouse and got caught on camera pic.twitter.com/Ht9gBBF7aQ
— Max Weinbach (@mweinbach) March 20, 2026
The defendants staged thousands of non-working “dummy” servers for inspections, then used those same props again for a Commerce Department inspection. Ahead of that visit, prosecutors say Sun and another broker used a hair dryer to remove and reattach labels and serial-number stickers before repackaging the dummy systems in manufacturer boxes.
Supermicro said the alleged conduct ran against its policies and compliance controls. Reuters reported that Liaw and Chang were placed on leave, Sun’s ties to the company were terminated, and NVIDIA said it follows export-control rules.
Here’s the video that allegedly led to the investigation:
DEVELOPING: Chinese entrepreneur boasts receipt of 200 NVIDIA H200 GPUs in Beijing despite US export ban, explains how he circumvents export ban 🧵 pic.twitter.com/lSmieIfSnW
— bone (@boneGPT) January 27, 2025
Source: US Department of Justice via Reuters
