63 months imprisonment for exporting microchips to China

Vincent Laroch
Press

Yi-Chi Shih, a 66-year-old engineering professor, was arrested by the FBI in January 2018 at his California home. At the same time, RCMP was conducting a search in the prospect of the house of his brother and associate Xiang Shihin, who at the time was a professor of engineering at McGill University.

The two brothers were accused in the United States of illegally exporting mixed-use civil and military microchips for the benefit of a company involved in Chengdu, China. According to the evidence presented at the inquest, the company is affiliated with military research institutes that develop systems for the Chinese military, especially in the field of guided missiles.

According to the FBI, Xiang Shih and Yi-Shi Shi paid millions of dollars to buy military-grade monolithic microwave circuits in the United States, under false pretenses, to be smuggled into China for copying. The professors are said to have received significant funding for the move from Chinese supporters. A laboratory at McGill University is said to have been used as part of the plot.

The handover was claimed for almost three years

Yi-Shi Shih, who was already on U.S. soil, was sentenced last Thursday to 63 months in prison, prosecuting and convicted. He will have to pay a $ 300,000 fine and send an additional $ 3,363,000 to U.S. tax authorities.

For his part, Xiang Shih, who was in Quebec, has been multiplying appeals and claims before the Quebec courts since 2018. Although U.S. officials have been demanding his extradition for nearly three years, he is still as free as the wind. His case is set to return to court next December in Montreal for five days.

The former professor is represented by lawyers Rose-Melanie Trivod and Julio Peris. They have already criticized the allegations that American consumers are making against their clients, linking them to certain economic interests rather than a real threat to national security.

“It only demonstrates the US willingness to eliminate trade competition. Remember that our steel industry was also seen as a threat to US national security,” he said.^e Peris last February.Besides this, you should know more about this.