Former Chinese Semiconductor Executive Found Guilty of MMIC Export Violations

Los Angeles resident Yi-Chi Shih, former president of China-based Chengdu GaStone Technology Co. (CGTC), was found guilty of conspiring to illegally export semiconductor chips to China, violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, DOJ said Tuesday. Shih gained access to a “protected computer” of a U.S. company that makes monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), before exporting the chips, which are used by the U.S. military for missiles and fighter jets, it said. Shih accessed the company’s computer systems with a co-conspirator by posing as a domestic customer looking to buy custom-designed MMICs that would be used only in the U.S., DOJ said. Shih illegally exported the ICs, without a license from the Commerce Department, to CGTC, which was building a MMIC manufacturing company in China, said Justice. CGTC was added to Commerce’s entity list in 2014, for “illicit procurement of commodities and items for unauthorized military end use in China.” Shih faces a statutory maximum federal sentence of 219 years.