Case 053: Baoxia Liu | Bypassing Sanctions, Fueling Terror: The Global Tech Smuggling Plot

She wasn’t moving weapons.She was moving the parts that make them deadly.In this episode of Fugitive Files, we follow the case of Baoxia Liu, also known as Emily Liu — a Chinese national and alleged architect of a global tech smuggling conspiracy designed to secretly arm Iran’s military.According to a sweeping federal indictment and official statements from the Department of Justice, Liu and her co-conspirators allegedly used shell companies in China and Hong Kong to illegally acquire sensitive, U.S.-origin electronic components — the kind used in drones, ballistic missiles, and other advanced weaponry. The ultimate recipients? Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and MODAFL, two of the regime’s most powerful military branches.Over the course of several years, the group is accused of bypassing U.S. sanctions and export control laws to fuel Iran’s defense ambitions — endangering global security in the process.Liu and accomplice Yanlai Zhong (a.k.a. Sydney Chung) are now among the FBI’s Most Wanted, with the State Department offering up to $15 million for information that leads to their arrest or disrupts the IRGC’s financial networks.They are charged with:Conspiracy to unlawfully export dual-use technologyViolations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)Money launderingConspiracy to defraud the United StatesThis case isn't about what was shipped.It’s about where it was headed—and why it matters.This is Fugitive Files. Let’s get into it.