U.S. DoJ Charges Chinese Smartphone Company Huawei With Stealing Trade Secrets and Fraud

[MacRumors]

The United States Justice Department today announced a series of criminal charges against Chinese smartphone maker Huawei for stealing trade secrets, bank fraud, wire fraud, and obstructing justice.

In the first of two indictments unsealed this afternoon, the Justice Department accuses Huawei, Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, and two affiliates of bank and wire fraud.

Huawei is said to have misled a global bank and U.S. authorities about its relationship with subsidiaries Skycom and Huawei Device USA to conduct business in Iran despite sanctions, conducting millions of dollars in business. Huawei is accused of lying to the government, destroying documents, and attempting to move key Huawei employees back to China to impede the investigation.

A second indictment accuses Huawei of stealing trade secrets, wire fraud, and obstructing justice for stealing robotic technology from T-Mobile U.S. for testing smartphone durability.

Huawei violated confidentiality agreements with T-Mobile when it stole information on "Tappy," a T-Mobile robot designed to mimic human fingers to test smartphones back in 2012. Huawei employees secretly took photos of the robot, measured it, and stole components. T-Mobile won a $4.8 million lawsuit against Huawei in 2017 over the dispute.

All in all, the U.S. filed 10 charges related to trade secrets for the T-Mobile theft and 13 charges related to sanction violations against Huawei. The U.S. is seeking the extradition of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou from Canada, where she was arrested in December.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the charges levied against Huawei "expose brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions and threaten the free and fair global marketplace."

As you can tell from the number and magnitude of the charges, Huawei and its senior executives repeatedly refused to respect U.S. law and standard international business practices. Huawei also intentionally and systematically sought to steal valuable intellectual property from an American company so it could circumvent hard-earned time consuming research and gain an unfair market advantage. [...]

As Americans, we should all be concerned about the potential for any company beholden to a foreign government - especially one that doesn't share our values -- to burrow into the American telecommunications market. Today's charges serve as a warning that the FBI does not - and will not -- tolerate businesses that violate our laws, obstruct our justice, and jeopardize our national security.

The charges filed today against Huawei will likely escalate U.S.-China tensions, though the Department of Justice said that the indictments are "wholly separate" from trade negotiations with China, which are set to continue this week.

The U.S. has already banned government employees and contractors from using devices from Huawei and ZTE, and legislation has been introduced that would ban the export of U.S. parts and components to Chinese telecommunications companies in violation of U.S. export control or sanction laws.

Huawei is the largest smartphone manufacturer in China and a major Apple competitor in the country. Few Huawei products are available in the U.S., however, because of the aforementioned cybersecurity concerns.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: U.S. DoJ Charges Chinese Smartphone Company Huawei With Stealing Trade Secrets and Fraud

 

[341328]

Doing business with China is a long term bad move.

 

[JGIGS]

No way, Huawei!

 

[macguru212]

DOJ: It's our way or the Huawei!

 

[1050792]

There can't be two corrupts at once.

 

[AngerDanger]

Huawei violated confidentiality agreements with T-Mobile when it stole information on "Tappy," a T-Mobile robot

It’s not often your read a MacRumors article that makes you pinch yourself to see if you’re fever-dreaming.

 

[lunarworks]

Huawei is shady as hell. They hacked into Nortel for years, stealing all sorts of sensitive material, and strongly contributed to that company's downfall. The more I learn about them, the less I like them.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

And the Wall St. gangsters who knowingly destroyed the global economy for personal profit? Oh yeah, they got a bailout.

 

[Thunderbird]

Canada has been caught up in this since we arrested Meng Wanzhou, and we will be obligated to extradite her now. It has made the Trudeau government look like a pawn for the US and strained our relations with China.

 

[0947347]

There can't be two corrupts at once.

In the case of DoJ and Huawei,
it takes two to tango.



And my usual sarcasm corner:
I am sure it has got absolutely nothing to do with the US government trying to sanction China (and other countries) for whatever existing (and nonexistent) reasons.

 

[macduke]

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the charges levied against Huawei "expose brazen and persistent actions to exploit American companies and financial institutions and threaten the free and fair global marketplace."

China wouldn’t know a free and fair global market if it hit them in the face—and it’s about to!

 

[trusso]

Business and international relations always remind me of a bunch of pituitary cases locked in an underground bunker.

 

[shansoft]

Didn't they also stole all their telecom and networking infra design from Cisco as well?

****** company

 

[JPack]

Canada has been caught up in this since we arrested Meng Wanzhou, and we will be obligated to extradite her now. It has made the Trudeau government look like a pawn for the US and strained our relations with China.

I doubt that will happen given Canada doesn't have technology sanctions with Iran. It may violate U.S. law, but the extradition treaty requires Canada to have a similar law, which Canada doesn't.

Trying to jail the CFO of a company because other Huawei employees allegedly tried to steal a robot is laughable.

 

[busyscott]

I wonder if this is the “government owned company” that’s refusing to give docs over in the Mueller investigation.

 

[brendu]

Chinese company cheats, steals, and lies? Is anyone here surprised? Frack the Chinese. I wish we could completely abandon them for all manufacturing (not just apple). They are NOT our friends. The Chinese laugh at us every day for being so stupid as to let them do this.

 

[twennywonn]

Wow wee that's not good.

 

[Rojaaemon]

No one does crony capitalism like the capitalists of the Communist Party of China..

 

[Macaholic868]

I hate this notion of corporate personhood. You can indict individuals for breaking the law but by allowing the indictment of corporations the C level executives directly responsible are let off the hook. They just laugh, plead guilty and pay the fines with company funds. They still get their golden parachute. If this were an American firm I doubt the executive would’ve been charged.

 

[Wando64]

China wouldn’t know a free and fair global market if it hit them in the face—and it’s about to!

Well, someone is going to learn something.
I am not entirely sure it will be China though.

 

[Kabeyun]

I wonder what the Chinese retaliation will be.

 

[apolloa]

Not surprised by this, it’s a shame this company has in the West been accused of all sorts of shenanigans when they make pretty good phones. It seems they are justified accusations too.

 

[0924487]

A rising tide lifts all boats.

 

[2GoldFish]

Sounds like Chapter 1 of WW3 to me.

 

[sidewinder3000]

Would be great if this was the beginning of a crackdown on espionage and illegal activity by the Chinese government against US corporations. It’s a travesty that a government with such vast resources is attacking American businesses with no consequences.