Two Chinese men, Han “Anson” Li and Lin Chen, are facing accusations of attempting to illegally export technology from Santa Rosa to China, according to federal investigators. An indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the two individuals, charging them with various violations including conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, false electronic export information activities, smuggling, and other IEEPA violations.
The accused individuals allegedly tried to obtain a DTX-150 Automatic Diamond Scriber Breaker machine from Dynatex International in Santa Rosa, which is used for cutting thin semiconductors. Despite attempts to contact Dynatex for comment, the company could not be reached. Li and Chen are suspected of attempting to ship products to Changdu GaStone Technology Company (CGTC) between May 2015 and August 2018, despite the company being barred from receiving certain products. They falsely identified Jiangsu Hantang International as the buyer instead of CGTC in their transaction information.
U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey emphasized that the export restrictions in place were intended to prevent the illicit procurement of commodities and technologies for unauthorized military use in China. The export restrictions were put in place following President Obama’s Executive Order 13694 which imposed economic sanctions on North Korea and prohibited exports of dual-use items to that country without proper authorization from the U.S government. However, it is believed that some companies have been using this order as a loophole to evade export controls altogether by shipping products to countries like China instead