US charges Chinese telecoms giant Huawei with conspiracy, money laundering
- US accuses company of stealing trade secrets from a rival and violating US sanctions against doing business with Iran
- Acting Attorney General also confirms plan to seek extradition of CFO Meng Wanzhou from Canada
The United States filed charges on Monday against Huawei Technologies, contending that the Chinese telecommunication giant stole trade secrets from a telecoms rival and violated US sanctions against doing business with Iran.
Senior officials of the Trump administration gathered at the Department of Justice in Washington to announce criminal indictments against Huawei, the largest Chinese smartphone maker; its US affiliate; Hong Kong-based Skycom; and Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, for conspiracy that poses a national security threat to the US.
Acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker also confirmed that the department planned to file for extradition of Meng, who was detained by Canadian authorities at the request of the US in December. The US was facing a Wednesday deadline to pursue extradition proceedings.
The US contends that Meng, 46, a daughter of Huawei’s founder, committed bank fraud to sidestep sanctions against doing business with Iran. She is free on bail in Vancouver, British Columbia, pending extradition proceedings.
The indictments unsealed on Monday, were the result of lengthy investigations and included nearly two dozen charges, US officials said.
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York, charged Huawei – and Meng – with money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Huawei was also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
A separate indictment from Washington state accuses Huawei, its US affiliate, Skycom and Meng, of stealing trade secrets from the telecommunications company T-Mobile. 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 misrepresented itself over the years,” Whitaker said at a news conference that included US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, FBI director Christopher Wray.
“Criminals and bad actors can be certain that they are not going to get away,” Whitaker said. “We show it today and we will show it as the case moves forward.”
Nielsen said Huawei’s behaviour was not “just illegal but also detrimental to the national security of the US” and that the US would “not tolerate a regime that supports terrorism”.
Ross noted that the administration had punished another Chinese telecommunications company, ZTE, last year for violating US sanctions.
“For years, Chinese firms have broken our export laws and undermine our sanctions to facilitate their illegal activities. This will end,” Ross said.
Wray said “Huawei has repeatedly refused to respect US law. Huawei relied on dishonest business practices. There is no place, none, for this kind of criminal behaviour to be committed in our country.”
“The immense influence the Chinese government hold towards Chinese companies is a tremendous threat to the US. As a country we have to carefully consider the risks a company like Huawei will impose on our national security,” he said.
The announcement came not only as tensions rise in the tariff war between the US and China but also as the US has stepped up efforts to crack down on what it contends has been China’s espionage activities to steal American technology.
In December, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein announced charges against two Chinese men, citing evidence that they were hackers associated with the Ministry of State Security and had hacked into a dozen companies and government agencies in the US and around the world, targeting intellectual property and confidential business information.
