Imperial Valley News
Imperial Valley News Center
Engineer Sentenced to Over 5 Years in Prison for Conspiring to Illegally Export to China Semiconductor Chips with Military Uses
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Written by Imperial Valley News
Los Angeles, California - An electrical engineer who schemed to illegally obtain integrated circuits with military applications that were exported to China without the required filing of electronic export information was sentenced Thursday to 63 months in federal prison.
Yi-Chi Shih, 66, of Hollywood Hills, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt, who also ordered him to pay $362,698 in restitution to the IRS and fined him $300,000.
After a seven-week jury trial that concluded in July 2019, Shih was convicted of one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Shih also was convicted of four counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, one count of making false statements to an FBI agent, three counts of subscribing to a false tax return, and four counts of making false statements to the IRS about his foreign assets.