Former McGill Professor’s brother and co-convict has been sentenced to more than five years in prison in California for illegally exporting Chinese microchips used in new-generation missiles.
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, the RCMP conducted a search of his brother and partner Ishiyang Shih’s home in Prochard, who was then a professor of engineering at McGill University.
The two brothers were accused in the United States of illegally exporting mixed-use civilian 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, particularly 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 was already on U.S. soil, so he was tried, convicted and sentenced last Thursday to 63 months in prison. 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 increased the number of appeals and claims in Quebec courts since 2018. Despite almost three years of calls for him to be extradited by US authorities, he remains 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 accusations leveled at their customers by American consumers, linking them to certain economic interests rather than a real threat to national security.
“This 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.
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