Chinese Duo Held for Illegal AI Chip Exports

Every week, Information Security Media Group rounds up cybersecurity incidents and breaches around the world. This week, a Chinese duo arrested in Los Angeles for illegal artificial intelligence chip exports, France extradited an accused Nigerian hacker, Ukraine hacked Crimean servers, a Florida prison email leak, Tea App clone exposed users’ IDs.

See Also: On Demand | Global Incident Response Report 2025

U.S. federal prosecutors say two Chinese nationals in Los Angeles of selling tens of millions of dollars’ worth of advanced artificial intelligence chips made by Nvidia to Chinese customers.

Chuan Geng, 28, and Shiwei Yang, 28, allegedly made more than 20 shipment between October 2022 and July of the advanced ships to Singapore and Malaysia, locations that prosecutor say served as transshipment points on to China. A December 2024 shipment included 12 GPUs, valued at over $110,000. They operated from an El Monte-based company, ALX Solutions.

Geng surrendered Saturday to authorities while police arrested Yang. A judge released Geng on a $250,000 bond and ordered detention for Yang, who also overstayed her visa to be in the United States.

A complaint says the pair sold H100 and PNY GE Force RTX 4090 chips, processors whose sale to China is restricted amid concerns that the Chinese amid concerns that the Chinese government will use them to harm U.S. national security.

One tell that the AI chips were not really intended for buyers in Singapore or Malaysia, the complaint states, is that ALX Solutions received numerous payments from companies based in Hong Kong and China, including a $1 million payment from a China-based company in January 2024.

The H100 contains 80 billion transistors and is six times more powerful than its predecessor A100 chip. An Nvidia spokesperson told CNN that chips sold without its knowledge “receive no service, support or updates.”

“Smuggling is a nonstarter,” the spokesperson said. “We primarily sell our products to well-known partners” who hew to U.S. export control rules.

Nigerian national Chukwuemeka Victor Amachukwu, 39, appeared in a New York federal court Tuesday on charges related to a years-long hacking and fraud scheme targeting tax businesses. Amachukwu, freshly extradited from France, faces charges of computer intrusion, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors allege that starting in 2019, Amachukwu and co-conspirators in Nigeria used phishing emails to hack into tax preparation firms in New York, Texas and elsewhere. In one 2021 incident, they infected a Manhattan firm with malware, stole customer tax data and filed fraudulent tax returns. The group sought $8.4 million in tax refunds and secured $2.5 million.

They also allegedly used stolen identities to fraudulently claim $819,000 through the Small Business Administration’s novel coronavirus-era disaster loan program. Amachukwu is further accused of defrauding investors by promoting fake businesses, earning millions through investment scams.

One co-conspirator, Kingsley Uchelue Utulu, is also named in court filings but his status is unknown.

Ukrainian military intelligence said it hacked government servers in Russian-occupied Crimea, uncovering thousands of files detailing the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, reported The Kyiv Independent.

The data includes personal records of children without guardians, documents assigning Russian citizens as legal guardians and addresses of relocation sites.

Intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said the information was shared with law enforcement and will support criminal investigations aimed at recovering the children and prosecuting those responsible. Ukraine’s official Children of War database counts nearly 20,000 children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied areas since the February 2022 invasion began.

A data breach at Florida’s Everglades Correctional Institution occurred when a staff member on July 24 accidentally emailed inmates the personal contact details of other prisoners’ visitors, reported the Florida Phoenix. The leaked information included names, phone numbers and email addresses – accessible to all inmates via secure tablets and kiosks.

Family members of inmates expressed concerns over potential misuse of their data. Jan Thompson, one of those affected, feared the information could be used for extortion. “What if an inmate gives another’s wife’s number to someone outside and threatens violence unless she pays?” she said.

Patrice Kelly, another impacted visitor, was especially distressed given her past experience with a stalker. She had worked to erase her online presence, only for her data to be inadvertently exposed to inmates.

A male-oriented version of the viral Tea dating app is leaking sensitive user information including driver’s licenses, selfies and email addresses due to a security flaw, reported TechCrunch.

The app, known informally as “Tea for Men,” mimics the design and branding of the original Tea app, which gained popularity earlier this year for prioritizing women’s safety. Researchers discovered that a misconfigured database exposed real-time user data, including profile photos, email addresses and even images of government-issued IDs used for verification. A developer’s admin login credentials were also found in plaintext on the server, potentially allowing full access to user data and app controls.

The app, which has attracted over 50,000 users, shares backend infrastructure with the original Tea platform – which itself suffered a breach last month that exposed 72,000 images and one million private messages.

Tea has not publicly commented on its relationship to the men’s app.

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With reporting from Information Security Media Group’s Gregory Sirico in New Jersey.