Overview
- Dingwei Chen pleaded guilty in federal court in Salt Lake City on Monday and faces up to 20 years in prison with sentencing scheduled for Oct. 19.
- Prosecutors say Chen tried to buy U.S.-made military satellite modems and radios that cannot be exported to China without a State Department license.
- Court records show Chen and co-conspirators worked with foreign arms dealers, discussed routing shipments through Switzerland, Saipan, and Mexico, and made an initial $40,000 down payment for 10 modems.
- To evade detection they used an encrypted messaging app and switched payments to cryptocurrency, sending roughly $30,000 in USDT and citing the anonymity of cold wallets.
- The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and is being prosecuted by the DOJ National Security Division as part of broader export-control enforcement to protect U.S. military advantage.