A federal grand jury in Manhattan unsealed an indictment on March 20, 2026, charging three defendants with conspiring to export high-performance artificial intelligence servers from the United States to China in violation of federal export control laws [1]. The defendants are Yih-Shyan "Wally" Liaw, a U.S. citizen, Ruei-Tsang "Steven" Chang, a Taiwanese national currently a fugitive, and Ting-Wei "Willy" Sun, also a Taiwanese national [1]. Liaw and Sun were arrested and presented in the Northern District of California; Chang remains at large [1].
The indictment alleges that the defendants used falsified shipping documents, staged dummy servers designed to pass inspection, and layered transshipment routes to move AI accelerator chip-equipped servers to Chinese end users [1]. The servers at issue are high-performance computing systems subject to export licensing requirements under the Export Administration Regulations, administered by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security [1]. The alleged conduct, if proven, would constitute a knowing circumvention of controls that the United States has tightened substantially over recent years to prevent advanced semiconductor and AI hardware from reaching Chinese military and commercial actors.
The case was brought by the Southern District of New York in coordination with the Justice Department's National Security Division [1]. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton and National Security Division Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg are among the officials associated with the matter [1]. The FBI provided investigative support alongside the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security [1]. The unsealing of the indictment in Manhattan, while arrests occurred in California, reflects the SDNY's established role as a primary venue for complex national security export control prosecutions.
The charges land against a backdrop of escalating federal enforcement targeting the diversion of advanced U.S. computing hardware to China. The Commerce Department has issued successive rounds of controls restricting exports of high-bandwidth memory chips and AI accelerators, and the Justice Department has signaled that criminal prosecution, not civil penalty, is its preferred instrument for willful violations involving national security-sensitive technology. With Chang a fugitive and Liaw and Sun awaiting proceedings in California, the next near-term steps will be arraignment, entry of counsel, and likely transfer or coordinated proceedings between the Northern District of California and the SDNY. The fugitive status of Chang will shape extradition and international cooperation considerations going forward.