In the Northern District of California, two Chinese men, Han “Anson” Li, 44, and Lin Chen, 64, have been charged with attempting to illegally export technology produced in Santa Rosa to China. The indictment against them was unsealed last week in U.S. District Court. The charges they face include conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, false electronic export information activities, smuggling and other IEEPA violations. These export restrictions were put in place to prevent the procurement of commodities and technologies for unauthorized military use in China.
The two men are accused of trying to obtain a DTX-150 Automatic Diamond Scriber Breaker machine from Dynatex International, a company based in Santa Rosa. Efforts to contact officials at Dynatex were unsuccessful as the company’s contact information was not readily available. It is believed that Li and Chen attempted to ship products to Changdu GaStone Technology Company (CGTC) between May 2015 and August 2018. CGTC is among a list of entities that have been prohibited from receiving certain products by federal authorities. According to allegations, the two men identified a different company, Jiangsu Hantang International, as the buyer of the machine without mentioning CGTC in transaction details.
It is not clear how this illegal activity was discovered or how the suspects were identified. Chen was arrested in Chicago on April 24 while Li is believed to be in China. For more information about this case, contact Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @colin_atagi
