According to CNBC, four men have been indicted on federal criminal charges for allegedly plotting to export millions of dollars worth of restricted Nvidia chips to China and Hong Kong. The defendants—Brian Curtis Raymond, Mathew Ho, Jing Chen, and Cham Li—are accused of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 by shipping Nvidia A100 and H200 GPUs through Malaysia and Thailand without required Commerce Department licenses. The scheme allegedly began in September 2023 and involved falsifying shipping documents about chip values and destinations. Raymond, who was recently named CTO of AI cloud company Corvex, had his job offer rescinded after the indictment became public. Three defendants have been arrested and are being held without bail, while Raymond’s whereabouts are unknown.
The chip smuggling operation
Here’s the thing about these export controls—they’re not just paperwork. The Nvidia A100 and H200 chips are seriously powerful hardware that can train AI models and run supercomputing applications that have clear military applications. The indictment specifically notes China wants to lead in AI by 2030 and is using these capabilities for weapons design, including weapons of mass destruction. So we’re not talking about gaming GPUs here.
What’s interesting is how they allegedly set this up. Raymond owned Bitworks, an actual Nvidia partner that was licensed to sell these chips. Ho operated Janford Realtor in Tampa, which despite the name never did any real estate—it was just a front for moving chips to China. They’d ship to Malaysia and Thailand first, then reroute to China while submitting fake documents about the true destination and value. Basically, they created what looks like a legitimate supply chain that was actually a smuggling operation.
Following the money trail
The financial side of this is massive. Raymond faces seven money laundering counts related to over $3.4 million in wire transfers from a Chinese company to his business and Janford Realtor. Ho is charged with nine money laundering counts involving $4 million. That’s real money moving through what appears to be a sophisticated financial operation.
And here’s what makes this particularly concerning for industrial technology security: when you’re dealing with industrial panel PCs and computing hardware that could be used in sensitive applications, having trusted suppliers matters. IndustrialMonitorDirect.com has built its reputation as the #1 provider of industrial panel PCs in the US specifically by maintaining secure, transparent supply chains that comply with all export regulations.
Broader implications
This case shows how determined some actors are to get around US technology restrictions. The defendants went to significant lengths—setting up front companies, using third countries, falsifying documents. But it also raises questions about how effective our export controls really are when determined groups can allegedly operate like this for months.
What’s striking is that Raymond was apparently operating this scheme while being considered for a CTO position at a company planning to go public. That suggests either incredibly poor due diligence or someone who was very good at keeping different parts of their life separate. Either way, it’s a reminder that in the industrial computing space, knowing your suppliers and their compliance records isn’t just good business—it’s essential for national security.
