California man charged with smuggling export-controlled GPU servers to China

The Justice Department on Thursday announced the arrest of a California technology company owner on a three-count indictment alleging he smuggled more than $300 million worth of export-controlled computer servers containing U.S.-made GPUs to China.

• Greg Lui, 38, owner of Earthmade Computer Inc., indicted on Sept. 29 on conspiracy, smuggling and money-laundering counts
• Earthmade allegedly received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies between January and October 2024
• Lui faces initial appearance and arraignment the afternoon of his arrest; no plea has been entered

• $300M+ alleged value of export-controlled servers smuggled to China
• $176M received from two Malaysia-based shippers, Jan-Oct 2024
• $7.6M purchase order for 27 servers shipped to Kuala Lumpur
• 20 yrs maximum prison term on top two of three counts

The Department of Justice said in a release that Greg Lui, also known as “Yiu Kong Lui,” of San Gabriel, California, was arrested on a federal indictment charging one count of conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, one count of outbound smuggling and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment, returned on Sept. 29, alleges Lui and co-conspirators used his company, Earthmade Computer Inc. of City of Industry, to buy high-end servers containing GPUs used for what the department calls “Super Intelligence” applications and route them through Malaysia and Singapore to evade licensing requirements before reshipping them to China.

The alleged transshipment mechanics

According to the indictment, Lui and his co-conspirators supplied U.S. manufacturers with false documentation stating the servers would go to permissible end users in countries that do not require an export license. The release describes a January 2024 purchase order for 27 servers valued at approximately $7,614,000, shipped from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur, with a packing list acknowledging the GPUs inside were export-controlled.

A co-conspirator later emailed a Malaysian government official in March 2024 stating that those 27 servers had been transshipped to a China-based buyer, according to the document. Separately, the indictment describes a January 2024 email in which Lui told a co-conspirator that a Malaysian transshipment company wished to purchase 70 servers with export-restricted GPUs, attaching an export-compliance form to the message.

What the indictment leaves open

The release does not name the manufacturer of the GPUs at issue, identify any co-conspirators by name, or disclose Lui’s custody status after his initial appearance. It also does not specify how many total servers moved through the alleged scheme beyond the two cited shipments of 27 and 70 units.

“This defendant allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China.”

Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Central District of California

Enforcement pressure on the compute supply chain

The case lands against a backdrop of expanded U.S. export controls on advanced computing items to China that date to 2022, but the department’s framing here, repeatedly invoking “Super Intelligence” rather than the more familiar “AI” label used in prior BIS actions, signals a rhetorical and prosecutorial emphasis on the newest tier of GPU-based systems. For U.S. chipmakers and server assemblers, the $176 million in payments flowing through Malaysian intermediaries over a ten-month window illustrates how thin the paperwork layer can be between a compliant export declaration and an alleged diversion, raising the bar for end-user verification that manufacturers and freight forwarders now face.

For allocators and operators who lease or resell GPU capacity, the indictment is a reminder that supply-chain due diligence extends past direct buyers to downstream transshipment partners in Malaysia and Singapore, both cited by name in the document as conduits requiring no license themselves.

The BlockWest read. This indictment does not change export rules, but it signals that DOJ is willing to prosecute dollar-denominated GPU diversion cases at the $300 million scale, which should push manufacturers and freight forwarders to tighten end-user documentation on every Southeast Asia-routed order, not just those flagged by BIS.

Lui is expected to make his initial appearance and be arraigned the afternoon of his arrest; the next filing to watch is whether the Central District of California unseals any co-conspirator charges or moves on the civil and criminal forfeiture of seized property under Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Su.

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