10/12/2025

WEDNESDAY | DEC 10, 2025

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Duo accused of smuggling Nvidia chips

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Nvidia

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A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said “the Chinese government requires Chinese citizens abroad to strictly abide by local laws, while also legally protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens overseas.” Another man, Alan Hao Hsu, 43, and his company pleaded guilty in October to smuggling and unlawful export activities as part of the scheme, according to the Justice Department. Hsu and his company received more than US$50 million (RM206 million) in wire transfers from China to help fund the operations, which exported and attempted to export at least US$160 million worth of export

In complaint, prosecutors said Yuan helped recruit and organise individuals to inspect the mislabelled chips on behalf of the Hong Kong logistics company. Yuan allegedly agreed to direct inspectors not to say the goods were destined for China, prosecutors said, adding that he also directed discussions to craft a story his company could use to get chips and other equipment released after they were seized by federal authorities. Prosecutors estimate that the scheme had been in operation since at least November 2023. Yuan’s lawyer declined to comment, while a representative for Gong could not immediately be identified. a separate

employees of a Hong Kong-based logistics company and a China-based AI technology company to circumvent export controls. In court documents, prosecutors said Gong and his co-conspirators obtained the chips through straw buyers and intermediaries, and claimed that the goods were for US customers or customers in third countries like Taiwan and Thailand. The chips were shipped to US warehouses, where individuals removed the Nvidia labels and affixed labels bearing the name of what prosecutors believe was a fake company, according to the criminal complaint. The chips were then prepared for export, according to the complaint.

WASHINGTON: Two men are in custody for allegedly smuggling Nvidia H100 and H200 chips to China, the Justice Department said on Monday, as President Donald Trump gave the green light for Nvidia to export its H200 chips to Beijing. Prosecutors allege that Fanyue Gong, 43, a Chinese citizen living in New York, and Benlin Yuan, 58, a Canadian citizen from China, independently conspired with o Network threatened US security, says Texas prosecutor

department said. “Operation has exposed a sophisticated smuggling network that threatens our nation’s security by funnelling cutting-edge AI technology to those who would use it against American interests,” said Nicholas J. Ganjei, the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “While millions of controlled GPUs are in service at businesses, homes, and schools, we will continue to work with the government and our customers to ensure that second hand smuggling does not occur,” a Nvidia spokesperson said, calling the sale of older generation products on the secondary market “subject to strict security and review”. – Reuters Gatekeeper

ISRAEL KILLED MOST JOURNALISTS PARIS: Reporters Without Borders said yesterday that Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed this year worldwide, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain by its forces in Gaza. In its annual report, the Paris-based media freedom group said the total number of journalists killed reached 67 globally this year, slightly up from the 66 killed last year. Israeli forces accounted for 43% of the total, making them “the worst enemy of journalists”, RSF said in its report, which documented deaths over 12 months from last December. The most deadly single attack was a “double-tap” strike on a hospital in south Gaza on Aug 25, which killed five journalists, including two contributors to Reuters and the Associated Press. – AFP HEZBOLLAH SITES TARGETED TEL AVIV: Israel carried out strikes on southern Lebanon yesterday, targeting a training compound and other sites run by Hezbollah. “The IDF (Israeli military) struck infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah in several areas in southern Lebanon,” it said in a statement. The operation hit“a training and qualification compound used by Hezbollah’s Radwan Force” as well as “military structures and a launch site”. “The targets and military training conducted in preparation for attacks against Israel, constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a threat to Israel.” Despite a 2024 ceasefire, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas. – AFP

BR I E F S

Farmers blocking the national highway outside the central Greek city of Karditsa on Monday. – AFPPIC

Greece seeks to reimpose order in Crete ATHENS: Greece yesterday sought to reimpose order on Crete after farmers blocked the island’s two main airports in a show of force to demand the payment of EU subsidies. In Heraklion, farmers occupied the airport runway. In Chania, they occupied the airport building, allowing only a few flights to operate. Protests began in late last month mainly in the centre and north of Greece but have since spread. The farmers have ignored as authorities scrutinise fraudulent payment claims. In May, EU prosecutors alleged that thousands of suspects, many of them not farmers, had for years made claims for land they did not own, and exaggerated livestock numbers.

“Sometimes, the most extreme mobilisations might turn large segments of society against the farmers, who may have legitimate demands,” said the Greek leader, whose home island of Crete is strongly implicated in the scandal. The scandal has already led to the resignation of one minister. Farmers are also demanding compensation following the loss of over 400,000 sheep and goats in a sheep pox outbreak, all of which were slaughtered to stop the spread of the disease. – AFP Google’s AI Overviews are AI generated summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages and are shown to users in more than 100 countries. It began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May. The EU investigation into Google followed a complaint by independent publishers in July. – Reuters

With several flights cancelled or delayed at Heraklion and Chania airports, police reinforcements were sent from Athens, state TV ERT said. Authorities are reportedly seeking to arrest more than 100 protesters after scores of farmers on Monday overpowered riot police, assaulting them with stones and clubs and smashing two police vehicles.

Officials report more than €30 million (RM144 million) of false claims. The government has vowed that no legitimate farmers will lose money and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government was open to dialogue with farmers’ representatives but warned against “blind” protests.

government calls not to escalate the protest ahead of the end-of-year holidays. They are demanding the immediate payment of millions of euros in European Union subsidies whose disbursement has been slowed

Google faces EU antitrust investigation BRUSSELS: Alphabet’s Google faces an EU antitrust investigation into its use of web publishers’ online content and YouTube videos to train its artificial intelligence models, the European Commission said yesterday. The Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, said it was concerned that Google may be using publishers’ online content without compensating them adequately and without giving them the option to refuse the use of their content. It expressed the same concerns regarding Google’s use of YouTube videos uploaded by its users. “Google may be abusing its dominant position as a search engine to impose unfair trading conditions on publishers by using their online

The Commission launched last week an investigation into Meta’s plans to block AI rivals from its WhatsApp messaging system, underscoring increasing regulatory scrutiny into this area. The tech giant risks a fine as much as 10% of its global annual revenue if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules. European

content to provide its own AI powered services such as ‘AI Overviews’, which are AI-generated summaries,” EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera told a conference. “This case is once again a strong signal of our commitment to protecting the online press and other content creators, and to ensuring fair competition in emerging AI markets.”