Overview
- An indictment unsealed in Manhattan charges Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, and Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun with conspiring to violate export-control laws, smuggle goods, and defraud the United States.
- Liaw, a Supermicro co-founder and board member, and Sun were arrested in California, while Chang remains a fugitive; Liaw was released on bail and Sun awaits a detention hearing.
- Prosecutors allege the operation routed servers through a Southeast Asian pass-through, used falsified records and repackaging, and staged dummy hardware with transferred serial labels to deceive auditors.
- Court filings cite purchase orders totaling about $2.5 billion in 2024–2025 with at least $510 million in servers diverted to China after U.S. assembly during a concentrated period in spring 2025.
- Supermicro is not charged and says it is cooperating, placing two employees on leave and ending a contractor relationship, while Nvidia reiterated its strict compliance stance; Supermicro shares fell as much as 22% in extended trading after the charges became public.