By Bob Van Voris | Updated on Oct 10, 2026 at 12:41 AM
A man charged along with Super Micro Computer Inc. co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw of conspiring to send cutting-edge chips to China in violation of US export controls pleaded guilty, according to court documents.
Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun, a former outside contractor described by US authorities as a “fixer” who allegedly aided in the sales, pleaded guilty Thursday at a hearing in federal court in New York as part of an agreement with prosecutors, according to court filings. Prosecutors claimed the men were part of a scheme to send Nvidia Corp.-powered servers to an unnamed Southeast Asian company and then divert them to Chinese customers.
The charges came in a high-profile crackdown on alleged smuggling of restricted AI technology to China. Super Micro said in August, following an independent probe, that its current senior management had no knowledge of the purported scheme.
James J. Benjamin Jr., a lawyer for Sun, declined to comment. A sentencing date was scheduled for Sept. 8, 2027.
Liaw has pleaded not guilty in the case. The US also charged Ruei-Tsang “Steven” Chang, who served as a general manager in Super Micro’s Taiwan office. Chang has not appeared in the case.
The scheme allegedly involved efforts by the defendants and others to evade scrutiny by auditors from both Super Micro and the US government, an indictment said — including by falsifying records and setting up “dummy” servers to which they affixed serial numbers with a hair dryer.
San Jose, California-based Super Micro isn’t named as a defendant in the case and said in March it was cooperating with the government’s investigation.
“We have taken action against all identified employees and those parties no longer have any relationship with Supermicro,” Chief Executive Offier Charles Liang said in a public letter to stakeholders in March. “Mr. Wally Liaw has also resigned from the company’s board of directors. “
The case is US v. Liaw, 26-cr-00100, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).