MILFORD – Three Chinese nationals have been arrested for trying to steal and illegally export sophisticated semiconductors stolen from the U.S. military.
Daofu Zhang, 50, Jiang Guanghouw Yan, AKA Ben, 33; and Xianfeng Zuo, 37, were arrested Thursday morning in Milford, and all three made initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah A.L. Merriam in New Haven, Connecticut.
As alleged court document, federal law enforcement agents began investigating Yan and a Chinese company known as HK Potential in 2012 for trafficking in counterfeit semiconductors.
In October 2014 and in March 2015, Yan sold a total of 45 counterfeit Intel microprocessors to an undercover agent, who had advised himn that the components would be used on a U.S. Navy contract involving submarines.
In July 2015, Yan asked whether the undercover agent could get 22 Xilinx military grade semiconductors, for which Yan would pay $37,000 each. After the undercover agent advised him that the Xilinx components could be stolen from a U.S. Navy base, Yan offered to provide fake Xilinx components that could be substituted for the stolen components in order to prevent detection of the theft. When asked whether the fake Xilinx components would work, Yan replied that “the fake one just look the same” but were “not ok for function.” In November 2015, Yan shipped eight of the fake Xilinx components to the undercover agent.
