Four Arrested in Alleged Scheme to Illegally Export Nvidia AI Chips to China

Justice Department Unseals Indictment

The U.S. Justice Department announced on Thursday, November 20, 2025, the arrests of two Chinese nationals and two American citizens in connection with an alleged scheme to illegally export cutting-edge Nvidia artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China. The indictment, unsealed in federal court in Tampa, Florida, charges the four individuals with conspiring to violate the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and money laundering.

Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg stated that the defendants engaged in a 'deliberate and deceptive effort to transship controlled Nvidia GPUs to China by falsifying paperwork, creating fake contracts, and misleading U.S. authorities.'

Details of the Alleged Scheme

The individuals arrested are:

• Cham Li, 38, a Chinese national residing in California, also known as 'Tony Li'.
• Jing Chen, 45, a Chinese national on an F-1 nonimmigrant student visa, residing in Tampa, Florida, also known as 'Harry Chen'.
• Hon Ning Ho, 34, a U.S. citizen born in Hong Kong, residing in Tampa, Florida, also known as 'Matthew Ho'.
• Brian Curtis Raymond, 46, an American citizen residing in Huntsville, Alabama.

Prosecutors allege that the quartet conspired between September 2023 and November 2025 to illegally export advanced Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to China, routing them through Malaysia and Thailand. The scheme reportedly involved using a Tampa-based company, Janford Realtor LLC, owned by Ho and Li, as a front to purchase and ship the controlled Nvidia silicon overseas. Brian Curtis Raymond, identified as the former CTO of an AI cloud company, allegedly supplied GPUs to Ho and others, aware of their ultimate destination.

Shipments and Financial Transactions

According to the indictment, the group successfully exported 400 Nvidia A100 GPUs to China in two shipments between October 2024 and January 2025. Two other attempted shipments were disrupted by law enforcement: one involving 10 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) supercomputers containing Nvidia H100 GPUs, and another with 50 Nvidia H200 GPUs. The defendants allegedly received nearly $4 million in wire transfers from China to finance the illicit export operation.

Context of Export Controls

The arrests underscore the U.S. government's ongoing efforts to enforce strict export controls on advanced computing and semiconductor technology to China. These controls, which became effective on October 7, 2022, aim to prevent China from acquiring and developing high-tech capabilities that could be used for military modernization and large-scale surveillance systems, and to maintain U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence. Nvidia's A100, H100, and H200 GPUs are among the advanced chips subject to these restrictions, requiring licenses for export to China. Violations of the Export Control Reform Act and money laundering charges each carry potential penalties of up to 20 years in prison upon conviction.