California man arrested over alleged $300m server smuggling to China

US authorities arrested Greg Lui, 38, of San Gabriel, California, on 1 October after a federal grand jury charged him with conspiring to breach export controls, smuggling and conspiring to launder money. Prosecutors allege that his company, Earthmade Computer, helped send more than $300 million worth of export-controlled computer servers containing graphics processors to China without the required licences. The figure refers to servers, not a separate valuation of the chips inside them. Lui is presumed innocent. [2]

Prosecutors say Lui and others used false paperwork to present permitted buyers and destinations, then routed equipment through Malaysia or Singapore. In one example, they describe an order for 27 servers costing about $7.6 million that was shipped from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur. They say an alleged co-conspirator later told a Malaysian official the servers had gone on to a buyer in China. [3]

The authorities also allege that Earthmade received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipping companies between January and October 2024. That is a separate figure for company receipts, not an additional amount of servers allegedly smuggled. [2]