Taiwan prosecutors have indicted 10 tech executives for running illicit procurement rings. The rings smuggled NT$360 million ($11.33 million) worth of export-controlled military chips into China and Hong Kong.

The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office filed aggravated fraud charges against the group. Investigators uncovered three separate networks that falsified ties to the island’s premier defense research institute.

Chen Chien-hsiung, head of ADWELL Technology, ran the largest operation starting in 2017. Chen and his associates imported semiconductors from the United States, the Philippines, Malaysia, and South Korea. They forged end-user declarations from the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology. Those documents falsely certified that the components would remain in Taiwan and would not reach entities under US trade restrictions.

Once shipments arrived in Taiwan, the group repacked the components. Workers swapped original labels for stickers claiming Taiwan manufacture, then routed the shipments to shell companies in Hong Kong and mainland China. That operation generated roughly NT$120 million in illicit gains. Smuggled hardware included more than 10 types of restricted chips manufactured by Texas Instruments and Analog Devices. These were designed for radar units, electronic warfare systems, antenna arrays, ultrasound equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

A second network led by Hygge Investment head Lai Chin-lan launched in 2019. Lai used identical document falsification methods to ship US military-specification chips to buyers in Hong Kong. That operation brought in NT$130 million in illegal revenue.

Yuan Tung-tai, a third operator, ran orders through two Taiwan entities, Hui Chung Telecommunications and ZhanKai Technology. Yuan masked product origins on customs declarations.

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