"Kelly allegedly wrote he was looking for partners willing to help move Nvidia GPUs to buyers in China, which the U.S. government had banned from receiving the cutting-edge chips. Kelly wrote business was "lucrative" right now, with millions in profits to be made per order. He wanted people who could either find buyers who needed Nvidia chips for "AI, cloud, bit mining etc." or who could find customers in China to act as a fake front company, according to court records."
"A quick 28 minutes later, Zheng allegedly replied: "DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT CHINA." Delete those lines, Zheng messaged, according to screenshots of their text exchanges in court records. All references to China needed to be struck because, Zheng wrote, "We will draw attention from US government for embargo [sic] violation.""
"Kelly wrote back that they had already shared these details with other people. Zheng responded, "We just talk about it, no one can hold it as evidence against us." That exchange and more than a dozen others landed in court records alleging Zheng, Kelly, and a third co-conspirator, Tommy Shad English, 53, of Atlanta, conspired to commit smuggling and export control violations in March 2026."
"The English-Kelly-Zheng trio is just one in a growing list of smuggling cases showing the complexities of regulating the sale of highly sensitive American-made semiconductors in the shadow of national security concerns-with corporate compliance programs intended as a cure-all. The U.S. government has imposed a series of highly aggressive export controls intended to keep advanced, American-made technology out of the hands of adversaries i"
A 49-year-old marketing executive allegedly sent a WeChat message seeking partners to move Nvidia GPUs to buyers in China despite U.S. restrictions. The message described the work as lucrative and referenced potential buyers for uses such as AI, cloud, and crypto mining. The partner allegedly warned not to mention China because it could draw attention for embargo violations. The partner also suggested that discussing the plan without creating evidence would reduce legal exposure. Court records include additional messages and allege conspiracy among three people to commit smuggling and export control violations. The government has time to decide on formal charges.
Read at Fortune
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