In context: The US government has been trying to curb exports of advanced AI chips to China for a while now, but Beijing players have been successful in exploiting loopholes and engaging in illicit operations to acquire new GPUs. The situation is now changing, as authorities are targeting US-based smugglers in an effort to finally halt the remaining illegal GPU traffic.
Federal prosecutors have charged four individuals for allegedly orchestrating a GPU smuggling operation from the United States to China. The group, consisting of two Americans and two Chinese nationals, is accused of exporting "hundreds" of Nvidia GPUs, providing significant AI acceleration capabilities to Chinese companies.
Court documents obtained by Court Watch indicate that one of the suspects has already been arrested. The group faces charges including smuggling, conspiracy, and money laundering. Their operation reportedly began in 2023, successfully shipping at least 50 Nvidia H200 GPUs to China, along with multiple batches of H100 GPUs and HP supercomputers designed to operate with Nvidia chips.
The accused are Mathew Ho, Brian Curtis Raymond, Tony Li, and Harry Chen. They allegedly used a front company called Janford Realtor as an intermediary for shipping the restricted GPUs to China. Ho, a US citizen, acted as an agent for the company, while Li, a Chinese national, is said to have managed the venture.
Prosecutors also stated that Huntsville, Alabama resident Brian Curtis Raymond served as one of the vendors supplying GPUs to the operation. Payments to Raymond and other sellers were reportedly made via wire transfers originating from China. The defendants allegedly used falsified shipping documents and contracts in an attempt to evade US export restrictions.
So here's the scoop: Prosecutors have charged four individuals – two Americans and two Chinese nationals with secretly smuggling hundreds of Nvidia chips and ten HP supercomputers from the US to China.
– Court Watch (@courtwatch.bsky.social) 20 novembre 2025 alle ore 02:00
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Raymond was particularly active in the alleged deception. Prosecutors claim he owns an unnamed US company and received $2 million from Janford Realtor. Raymond also claimed to have been recently hired as CTO of Corvex, an AI cloud computing startup. Corvex later issued a statement denying any connection to the smuggling operation and stated that it employs no one by the name of Raymond.
According to Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo, the company's "rigorous" export control system tracks all GPU transactions, including sales of older-generation accelerators on secondary markets. He noted that attempting to build a data center from illegally acquired GPUs is extremely difficult and unlikely to succeed.
"Data centers are massive and complex systems, making any smuggling extremely difficult and risky, and we do not provide any support or repairs for restricted products," Rizzo stated.
The US-designed GPUs smuggled to China reportedly contributed to significant advancements in Chinese AI research, including the development of the DeepSeek model. Following the crackdown, Chinese authorities have allegedly instructed domestic tech companies to stop using foreign GPUs and focus on locally produced AI accelerators. With these measures, the smuggling operation has effectively come to an end.
Federal authorities take down criminal network smuggling Nvidia GPUs to China
