WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday that three people have been charged with conspiring to unlawfully divert U.S. artificial intelligence technology to China.

The FBI said Yih-Shyan Liaw, Ruei-Tsang Chang, and Ting-Wei Sun "allegedly conspired to sell billions of dollars worth of servers integrating sensitive, controlled graphic processing units to buyers in China, in violation of U.S. export control laws."

Liaw co-founded AI-optimized server maker Super Micro Computer Inc ( SMCI ) in 1993, and joined its board of directors in 2023, according to a 2023 Super Micro press release.

The DOJ accused the three people of participating in a systematic scheme to divert large quantities of AI technology to customers in China.

The DOJ statement did not mention Super Micro by name.

It, however, said Liaw is a "co-founder, board member, and senior vice president of business development of a publicly traded U.S.-based manufacturer that designs and builds high-performance computer servers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing applications, including servers that integrate artificial intelligence graphics processing units (GPUs)."

The DOJ statement described Chang as a general manager in the Taiwan office of the same U.S.-based manufacturer as Liaw, while it cast Sun as a third-party broker and "fixer" who worked with Liaw and Chang.

Super Micro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Together, the defendants and others conspired to systematically divert the U.S. manufacturer's servers with certain GPUs to China without a license to do so from the U.S. Department of Commerce," the U.S. DOJ said.

The defendants allegedly fabricated documents, staged bogus equipment to pass audit inventories, and used a pass-through company to conceal misconduct and true clientele list, the DOJ said.