United States charges Huawei with stealing trade secrets and violating sanctions
- by Ricky Curtis
- in Money
- — Jan 29, 2019
Shortly afterwards, in a move widely seen as retaliation for Meng's arrest, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, including a former diplomat, on security charges.
The U.S. Department of Justice is formally levelling criminal charges against Chinese tech juggernaut Huawei Technologies, two subsidiaries and Meng Wanzhou, the influential chief financial officer who has been free on bail in Vancouver since she was arrested by Canadian authorities almost two months ago.
The Department of Justice also announced 10 additional charges of wire fraud, trade theft and obstruction of justice against two other Huawei executives who it alleged tried to steal trade secrets. The charges stemmed from a civil lawsuit filed by T-Mobile in 2014 over a robot "Tappy", which was used in testing smartphones. Huawei has said the two companies settled their disputes in 2017.
Prosecutors claim that the telecom giant used a Hong Kong company to sell equipment in Iran. The indictment charges Huawei, Huawei Device USA Inc., Skycom and Meng with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and conspiracy to violate IEEPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
"Both sets of charges expose Huawei's brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions, and to threaten the free and fair global marketplace", said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The charges come at a volatile moment for the United States and China, which are still locked in trade tensions.
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Meng, who happens to be the Huawei co-founder's daughter, was arrested in Canada in early December and faces extradition to the US.
Meng is now in Vancouver, staying in one of her family's homes, as she awaits a decision from a Canadian court on whether she will be extradited to the United States. The U.S. said during its press conference it was "deeply grateful to the government of Canada" for following the rule of law.
There has been an ongoing battle between China's Huawei and the US Department of Justice ever since the US DOJ, in partnership with Canadian authorities, took the company's CFO into custody on suspicion of violating US sanctions against Iran.
The meetings are part of what Trump agreed to with Chinese President Xi Jinping during meetings previous year in Argentina, where they hatched a plan to spend 90 days talking about what it would take for the two countries to forge a trade alliance.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders insisted, however, that the two developments were unrelated.
