America Builds It, China Gets It: Tech Boss Charged in $300M AI Smuggling Scheme

Greg Lui allegedly bought restricted American computer servers through his California company and sent them to China using false paperwork and stops in other countries. More than $300 million worth. Federal agents arrested him Thursday on charges involving the sale of equipment the United States restricts to protect its technological and military advantage.

His company, Earthmade Computer Inc., is based in California’s City of Industry. Lui is 38 and also goes by Yiu Kong Lui. He faces an export-control conspiracy charge, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The FBI says the Chinese government is buying. Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of its Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, described the alleged sales: 

“The FBI’s investigation revealed that Lui allegedly sold the Chinese government hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of American Super Intelligence technology, in clear violation of U.S. export control laws. Controlling the export of advanced SI technology is critical to safeguarding our national security and defending the homeland, and the FBI will keep fighting for America’s businesses and economic security.”

Malaysia and Singapore allegedly provide the way around those controls. Between 2023 and 2024, prosecutors say, Earthmade bought servers with restricted American GPUs and shipped them to those countries before forwarding them to China. Manufacturers received false documents identifying permitted buyers and destinations. China was allegedly the destination all along.

Follow one of those orders. In January 2024, Lui allegedly bought 27 servers for approximately $7.6 million and arranged with a co-conspirator to ship them from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur.

The packing list specifically barred sending those GPUs to China without a license. Two months later, a co-conspirator allegedly emailed a Malaysian government official saying the 27 servers had been forwarded to a Chinese buyer.

Two Malaysia-based shipment companies paid Earthmade more than $176 million between January and October 2024, according to prosecutors.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli spelled out what those restrictions protect. 

“Protecting America’s national security means keeping our advanced Super Intelligence technology from being used to strengthen our adversaries’ military capabilities. This defendant allegedly used false paperwork and shipments through third countries to smuggle more than $300 million in export-controlled computer servers to China. We will aggressively prosecute those who put our national security at risk for profit.”

In the separate $510 million AI smuggling prosecution, servers allegedly passed through a Southeast Asian intermediary to conceal the Chinese buyers. Prosecutors said dummy equipment was staged for inspections after the real servers had reached China. Labels were moved, and boxes repackaged to maintain the appearance that the intermediary was the legitimate customer. All that effort to hide where the American hardware had gone.

Here, prosecutors say Lui knew the equipment required a license for China and arranged the shipments anyway. The alleged scheme let Beijing acquire restricted computing power while manufacturers were given documents naming permitted destinations. If proved, knowingly making those deliveries for profit, handing hundreds of millions in hardware to an adversary that could use it to strengthen its military, would be a betrayal.

Prosecutors now have to prove Lui did exactly that and put our technological advantage up for sale in the process.

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