Federal authorities have charged four individuals with orchestrating an elaborate scheme to illegally export advanced NVIDIA Corp. artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, violating U.S. national security interests.
The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment Wednesday against Hon Ning “Mathew” Ho, 34, a U.S. citizen living in Tampa, Fla.; Brian Curtis Raymond, 46, of Huntsville, Ala.; Cham “Tony” Li, 38, a Chinese national residing in San Leandro, Calif.; and Jing “Harry” Chen, 45, a Chinese national living in Tampa on a student visa. The defendants face charges including conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, smuggling, and money laundering.
If convicted on all charges, the defendants could face decades in prison and be forced to forfeit their financial gains.
Prosecutors allege the group operated from September 2023 through November 2025, using a Tampa-based shell company called Janford Realtor LLC as a front for their operation. Despite its name, the company never engaged in real estate business and existed solely to facilitate the illegal chip exports, according to the indictment.
Authorities claim the conspirators falsified documents, created fake contracts, and misled U.S. authorities about the final destination of the technology. They allegedly routed shipments through third countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, to circumvent export restrictions before the chips reached China.
The operation involved four separate export attempts. Two shipments completed between October 2024 and January 2025 delivered approximately 400 NVIDIA A100 processors to China. Law enforcement successfully disrupted two additional shipments, which included 10 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Corp. supercomputers containing NVIDIA H100 GPUs and 50 separate H200 GPUs.
Investigators traced nearly $3.9 million in wire transfers from Chinese companies to fund the conspiracy. The indictment details nine separate transfers ranging from $237,248 to $1.15 million. None of the defendants obtained required export licenses for the technology.
“The indictment unsealed yesterday alleges a deliberate and deceptive effort to transship controlled NVIDIA GPUs to China by falsifying paperwork, creating fake contracts and misleading U.S. authorities,” Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said in a statement.
Court documents reveal text messages obtained by authorities show Li claimed his father had previously conducted similar operations on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party and knew methods to import chips despite U.S. restrictions.
The case highlights ongoing tensions over advanced technology exports as China aims to become the world leader in AI by 2030. The indictment notes Beijing seeks to leverage AI for military modernization, including weapons development and advanced surveillance systems.
Raymond, who was briefly listed as chief technology officer of AI company Corvex, has been released on bond. The other three defendants remain in custody. Corvex said Raymond was a consultant transitioning to an employee role, but that offer has been rescinded.
