Two American citizens and two nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — all residing in the United States — have been charged with a conspiracy to illegally export cutting-edge Nvidia Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which have artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to the PRC. John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a press release. It further said that the Amercan government will also seek forfeiture of 50 Nvidia H200 GPUs that were intended to be exported unlawfully.Those arrested include Hon Ning Ho, aka “Mathew Ho,” an American citizen born in Hong Kong, 34, residing in Tampa, Florida; Brian Curtis Raymond, American citizen, 46, Huntsville, Alabama; Cham Li, aka “Tony Li,” PRC national, 38, San Leandro, California, and Jing Chen, aka “Harry Chen,” PRC national on F-1 nonimmigrant student visa, 45, Tampa, Florida. On November 19, 2025, Ho and Chen were arrested and appeared in court in the Middle District of Florida, while Raymond was arrested and appeared in the Northern District of Alabama.
Raymond was briefly the chief technology officer (CTO) of the Virginia-based Corvex, which describes itself as an AI cloud computing company and is planning to go public. Corvex listed Raymond as its CTO and part of its leadership team in a press release on November 10.Corvex told CNBC yesterday that it “had no part in the activities cited in the Department of Justice’s indictment,” and that “the person in question is not an employee of Corvex. Previously a consultant to the company, he was transitioning into an employee role but that offer has been rescinded.”“The indictment unsealed yesterday alleges a deliberate and deceptive effort to transship controlled Nvidia GPUs to China by falsifying paperwork, creating fake contracts, and misleading U.S. authorities,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “The National Security Division is committed to disrupting these kinds of black markets of sensitive U.S. technologies and holding accountable those who participate in this illicit trade.”“As demonstrated by this indictment, the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida is firmly committed to safeguarding our country’s national security,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe for the Middle District of Florida. “Thanks to the dedicated investigative work by our law enforcement partners, these defendants who wrongfully exported this sensitive technology are facing justice.”According to the indictment, the PRC seeks to become the world leader in AI by 2030 and seeks to use AI for its military modernization efforts and in connection with the design and testing of weapons of mass destruction and deployment of advanced AI surveillance tools. The PRC seeks cutting-edge U.S. technology in furtherance of that goal, including Nvidia GPUs. To protect U.S. national security, beginning in October 2022, the Department of Commerce implemented new license requirements for the export of these technologies to the PRC.As alleged, from September 2023 to November 2025, Ho, Raymond, Li, and Chen conspired to violate these critical U. export controls, by illegally exporting advanced GPUs to the PRC through Malaysia and Thailand. In furtherance of the conspiracy, the conspirators used Janford Realtor, LLC—a Tampa, Florida-based company owned and controlled by Ho and Li—as a front to purchase and then illegally export controlled GPUs to the PRC. Despite its name, Janford Realtor, LLC, was never involved in any real estate transactions. Raymond, though his Alabama-based electronics company, supplied NVIDIA GPUs to Ho and others for illegal export to the PRC as part of the conspiracy.As further alleged in the indictment, the conspiracy encompassed four separate exports of Nvidia GPUs to the PRC. The first and second exports resulted in 400 Nvidia A100 GPUs being exported to the PRC between October 2024 and January 2025. The third and fourth exports to the PRC were disrupted by law enforcement and therefore not completed. These attempted exports related to ten Hewlett Packard Enterprises supercomputers containing Nvidia H100 GPUs and 50 separate Nvidia H200 GPUs. Despite knowing that licenses were required to export these items to the PRC, none of the conspirators ever sought or obtained a license for any of these exports. Instead, they lied about the intended destination of the GPUs to evade U.S. export controls. The indictment further alleges that the conspirators received over $3.89 million in wire transfers from the PRC to fund this unlawful scheme.
