Calif. Man Gets 5 Years for Exporting Military Chips to China

A Hollywood Hills, California, electrical engineer was sentenced Thursday to 63 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme to illegally export chips with military uses to China, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Administration Regulations, said DOJ. Yi-Chi Shih, 66, was convicted July 2 and ordered to pay the IRS $362,698 in restitution for lying to the agency about his foreign assets, and also was fined $300,000. Shih defrauded a U.S. manufacturer of high-power broadband chips to gain access to the company’s confidential and proprietary business information, then used an accomplice posing as a domestic customer to buy the chips for U.S. use, said DOJ. “Shih concealed his true intent to export.” Attempts to reach Shih’s lawyers for comment Friday were unsuccessful.