Overview
- Prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed charges against Yih‑Shyan “Wally” Liaw, Taiwan manager Ruei‑Tsang “Steven” Chang, and contractor Ting‑Wei “Willy” Sun over alleged export‑control violations.
- Agents arrested Liaw and Sun in California, Chang is described as a fugitive, and Liaw was released on an unsecured bond with court hearings scheduled next week.
- The indictment outlines a pipeline moving U.S.-assembled servers through Taiwan to a Southeast Asian pass‑through for repackaging, fake paperwork, staged “dummy” machines, and even hair‑dryer serial‑label swaps before shipment to China.
- Prosecutors say the operation moved about $2.5 billion of equipment during 2024–2025, including roughly $510 million shipped to China between late April and mid‑May 2025.
- Supermicro says it is not a defendant, has put the two employees on leave, cut ties with the contractor, appointed DeAnna Luna acting chief compliance officer, and saw its shares fall roughly 28%–33% as some investors rotated to rivals such as Dell.