Jiang Yan Sentenced for Military Chip Smuggling

Jiang Yan, 34, of Shenzhen, China, is going down for trying to smuggle advanced military computer chips out of the United States. The Chinese national was sentenced to approximately 12 months in federal prison — time already served — after pleading guilty to conspiracy to traffic counterfeit goods and attempting to export controlled defense technology without a license.

The chips in question were radiation-tolerant integrated circuits made by Xilinx Corp., components critical to the operation of military satellites and missile guidance systems. In summer 2015, Yan teamed up with fellow Chinese nationals Xianfeng Zuo and Daofu Zhang to acquire the tech through backchannels. When told U.S. export laws blocked legal shipment, Yan didn’t back off — he went darker.

Yan recruited a U.S. source to locate and steal the Xilinx ICs from military inventory. When the source raised concerns, Yan proposed a twisted workaround: swap out the real chips with counterfeit knockoffs that ‘look the same.’ The ruse was meant to cover the theft while delivering the real military-grade hardware to China.

In November 2015, Zhang shipped two packages from China containing eight fake Xilinx ICs, each bearing counterfeit branding. Weeks later, Yan, Zhang, and Zuo flew into the U.S. with cash in hand, ready to close the deal. On December 10, 2015, the trio met their American contact near Route 95 in Milford, Connecticut — only to be arrested by federal agents waiting at the scene.

Yan has been locked up since. As part of his sentence, he forfeited $63,000 seized during his arrest. He’ll now be handed over to the Department of Homeland Security for immediate deportation to China. His co-conspirators, Zhang and Zuo, each pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 15 months in prison in July and November 2016, respectively.

The case was a joint takedown by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce, the FBI, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Kopel and National Security Division attorneys Casey Arrowood and Thea Kendler, it underscores the federal crackdown on illegal tech trafficking threatening national defense.

RELATED: Xianfeng Zuo Sentenced for Counterfeit Chip Trafficking