Three men have been charged with conspiring to smuggle millions of dollars’ worth of export-controlled computer chips to China, federal prosecutors in Atlanta announced.
Stanley Yi Zheng, 56, of Hong Kong, China; Matthew Kelly, 49, of Hopewell Junction, New York; and Tommy Shad English, 53, of Atlanta, Georgia, have been charged with conspiring to commit smuggling and export control violations, according to federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia. Prosecutors allege the three men conspired beginning in or about May 2023 to obtain computer servers containing export-controlled chips from a California-based computer hardware company and ship them to Thailand for ultimate diversion to China.
In October 2023, prosecutors say English, claiming to act for a Thailand-based company, ordered 750 servers for about $170 million, including 600 containing chips controlled on the U.S. Commerce Control List, and signed an Advanced Computing Certification stating the servers were not destined for China or another country subject to heightened export requirements. English later transferred more than $20 million as partial payment, but the transaction was not completed after additional review failed to verify the end user in Thailand.
Prosecutors say English later sought to buy another 500 servers in April 2024 on behalf of a second Thailand-based company and signed an End User Certification stating that company was the end user, but that deal also was unsuccessful. Investigators cited text messages in which the defendants allegedly discussed fake corporate materials, the value of the chips in China, and recruiting others into the scheme. In one March 2024 exchange, Kelly drafted a solicitation message saying the group had “a few customers in China” and that the business could yield “millions of dollars in profits per order,” after which Zheng replied: “DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT CHINA,” warning that such references could attract U.S. government scrutiny for embargo violations.
Zheng was arrested March 22, 2026, and appeared in federal court in the Northern District of California on March 23. Kelly and English surrendered to authorities on March 25, 2026. The charges in the criminal complaints are accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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