US indictment against Huawei shows FBI interviewed founder in 2007, reviewed text from Meng Wanzhou’s electronic device

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents interviewed the founder of Huawei Technologies in New York in 2007 about the company’s dealings with Iran, and reviewed a file from an electronic device belonging to its chief financial officer in 2014, according to an indictment filed by the US against the Chinese telecommunications company.

The 25-page indictment, with parts redacted, said that Huawei’s founder, identified as “Individual-1” and “founder of Huawei”, told FBI agents in July 2007 then that the company was compliant with and “did not conduct any activity in violation of US export laws”. Ren Zhengfei is the founder of Huawei.

“Individual-1” also told agents that Huawei had not dealt directly with any Iranian company and he believed Huawei had sold equipment to a third party that was possibly in Egypt, which then sold equipment to Iran, according to the indictment.

The statements by “Individual-1” in the interview with FBI agents was listed as an overt act – known as an action that can be introduced as evidence of participation in a crime – that Huawei committed while trying to defraud the US.

Huawei Technologies denied the allegations laid out in the nearly two dozen charges filed by the US, which content that the company stole trade secrets or violated US sanctions against doing business with Iran. Its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, is in Canada awaiting extradition proceedings to the US.