DOJ’s $300M Chip Case: What the Indictment Itemizes

The Justice Department says a California man smuggled more than $300 million of GPU servers to China. These are allegations, from a press release of 1 October 2026 and an indictment filed on 29 September, and the defendant is presumed innocent. This publication read both documents, verified none of it independently, and found three different dollar figures in the indictment itself.

What the Justice Department Announced

In a press release published on 1 October 2026, the Justice Department said Greg Lui, 38, of San Gabriel, California, was arrested on a three-count indictment charging him with smuggling more than $300 million worth of export-controlled high-end computer servers containing U.S.-made GPUs to China. It said he owns Earthmade Computer Inc.

The charges are conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and the Export Administration Regulations, outbound smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The release gives maximum penalties of 20 years for the conspiracy count, 20 years for the money laundering count and 10 years for the smuggling count.

The release says: “An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.” It does not name the chipmaker, saying only that the GPUs were made by companies that specialize in what it calls SI computing.

Three Dollar Figures in One Indictment

The indictment, filed on 29 September 2026 as case 2:26-cr-00618-ODW in the Central District of California, does name the chipmaker. It says the servers contained GPUs manufactured by Nvidia Corporation, and lists NVIDIA A100 and H100 GPUs among the items ordered.

Its first paragraph says Lui and others conspired to smuggle “over 300 million dollars’ worth” of servers. Paragraph 32 says “hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth.” Paragraph 36 says Earthmade brokered the sale of “almost three hundred million dollars’ worth” of servers containing Nvidia GPUs.

The three figures sit in the same document, and this publication does not reconcile them. The dates also differ by source. The press release says the scheme ran from 2023 to 2024, the introductory allegations say it began in 2024, and counts one and two run from no later than around October 2023 until at least 12 August 2026.

The Itemized Orders

The indictment describes three transactions in detail. On 30 January 2024 it says Lui submitted a purchase order to U.S. Manufacturer 2 for 27 servers containing H100 GPUs for approximately $7,614,000, shipped to Kuala Lumpur the next day. On 12 March 2024, it says a co-conspirator emailed a Malaysian government official that the 27 servers had been transshipped to the Chinese Purchaser.

In June 2024, under a heading of $13 million, it says 92 servers were sent from San Francisco to Kuala Lumpur and on to Hong Kong, with the Chinese Purchaser as consignee. On 2 July 2024 it says a U.S. front company submitted an order for 100 servers, each containing an H100 GPU, for over $22 million.

This publication’s own arithmetic: $7.6 million plus $13 million plus $22 million is about $42.6 million, roughly 14% of $300 million. The indictment gives these as examples of the scheme, so the sum is not a claim about everything alleged.

The Money

The indictment says that between January and October 2024 Earthmade received over $80 million from Malaysian Transshipment Company 1 and $96 million from Malaysian Transshipment Company 2. The press release says Earthmade received more than $176 million from two Malaysia-based shipment companies. This publication’s own arithmetic: $80 million plus $96 million is $176 million.

Count three, the money laundering conspiracy, runs from no later than 28 February 2024 to around 13 December 2024. The indictment says Lui opened accounts at Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase to operate what it calls Earthmade’s smuggling business and used money sent into them to buy servers from U.S. Manufacturers 1, 2 and 3.

Who Is Named and Who Is Not

The indictment identifies the U.S. manufacturers only as U.S. Manufacturer 1, 2 and 3, high-end technology companies that built servers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. It describes an unindicted co-conspirator as a sales manager at U.S. Manufacturer 1 who approved the sale of high-end technology to Earthmade.

It describes the purchaser as “a Chinese industrial company based in Hangzhou, China.” A quote from an FBI official in the press release says Lui allegedly sold “the Chinese government hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth” of the technology. The indictment text this publication read names a company, not the government, as purchaser, and this publication draws no conclusion from the difference.

Nvidia appears in the indictment as the maker of the GPUs. This publication did not obtain a response from Nvidia.

What Is Not Established

Guilt is not established, and the defendant is presumed innocent. This publication does not know how Lui pleaded at arraignment, which dollar figure the Justice Department relies on, or whether any manufacturer is under investigation.

Every figure and description above is an allegation from the Justice Department release or the indictment, and none was independently verified. Nothing here is legal advice or investment advice.