Imagine this: a bland little office in El Monte, sitting innocently in a strip mall. Who would’ve guessed it was a hub for smuggling super-fancy computer chips to China? Two young folks, not even hitting 30, got nabbed for this wild scheme. Seriously, they say it was worth tens of millions. Yeah, that’s a lot of zeros.
So, here’s the deal. ALX Solutions Inc. popped up in 2022, right when Washington hit the brakes hard on shipping these super-chips overseas. And in just 20 months, this company sent 21 shipments out. Can you believe that? They sneakily labeled them as plain old video cards, no big deal, right? But then one day, customs folks snooped around and found out these were the hot-ticket accelerators. Crazy, huh? Just marked as “computer parts.” Ha!
Money? Oh, it was flowing. A big fish in Hong Kong dropped a whopping $1 million upfront. And then, bam, more cash dribbled in from China, linked to defense companies no less. But here’s the kicker – they tapped into Signal chats. The ringleader Geng was basically giving Yang, his partner in crime, a masterclass in sneaky shipping. “Slice orders,” he’d tell him. Keep it under the radar. It’s like a thriller, but with computer chips.
Now, there’s this rule from October 2022 that says if you want to send these mega-brainy chips to China, you need a special license. Seems these chips could jack up military AI, which is probably something to avoid.
Anyway — wait, where was I? Oh right, the customs caught a mislabeled batch in Long Beach last December. You know like catching fish with bare hands, slippery but doable. Some late-night detective action led them to a warehouse filled with, well, nothing. Just empty trays that once held a thousand GPUs. The kind that cost, like, $25 million. And the packing slips? Off to some newbie AI company in Shenzhen. Predictable, no?
Geng just threw in the towel without a fight. Yang, on the other hand, had his ticket to Taipei in hand when they caught him at LAX. Now Geng’s out on a $250,000 bond, but Yang? Nope. He’s stuck till his hearing on August 12.
The FBI called it, “classic transshipment with 21st-century polish.” They got a way with words, haven’t they? BIS is not holding back either, threatening civil penalties and maybe a lifetime ban on exports.
Turns out, Geng once fiddled with finances at a sketchy e-commerce place that folded over taxes, and Yang ran a parcel-forwarding gig for overseas sneakerheads. Those chips might’ve just skimmed right under the legal performance edge when bought. Their lawyers are gonna have a field day with that one, pulling out the tech geek squad to banter about firmware and bandwidths till the cows come home.
A trial around spring 2026? Yeah, it’ll be a spectacle. The raw look at this silicon smuggling shenanigans in our AI age. So there you have it, a glimpse into the chaotic dance of tech, rules, and a dash of audacity.
