US probes if Alice Huang helped smuggle Super Micro products

Detailed summary

The scrutiny is being led by the US attorney’s office in Manhattan. Read more at straitstimes.com.

It is unclear whether the probe into Alice Huang is specifically tied to any of the chip smuggling cases already brought by prosecutors in the US or Asia.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is probing Alice Huang, the woman US officials suspect is a spy targeting the ousted head of Nvidia, over whether entities linked to her were involved in efforts to smuggle products made by Super Micro Computer to China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The previously unreported scrutiny is being led by the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, said the person, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

It is unclear whether the probe into Alice Huang is specifically tied to any of the chip smuggling cases already brought by prosecutors in the US or Asia.

The Justice Department is already spearheading an investigation into Alice Huang’s former company Megaspeed International over suspected semiconductor smuggling, Bloomberg News reported. Megaspeed has denied wrongdoing.

Of the cases where charges have been brought, the most prominent involves Super Micro co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, who, along with two others, was charged by Manhattan federal prosecutors in March over an alleged conspiracy to send Nvidia-powered servers to an unnamed South-east Asian company and then divert them to Chinese customers.

Super Micro was not named as a defendant and has said it is cooperating with the investigation. Liaw, who pleaded not guilty, is no longer at the company.

Super Micro declined to comment on prosecutors’ scrutiny of Alice Huang before publication.

“Super Micro has been responsive to inquiries and has fully cooperated with US and Taiwanese officials, while also voluntarily providing information and engaging with all requests from Singapore authorities to date,” the company said in a subsequent statement.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Straits Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.