Huawei isn’t have a good day in the US. Here are the charges being leveled by the American government against the telecom company.
The chance you’ll see Huawei phones and routers in the US grew bleaker today, as the Chinese telecom firm has officially been criminally charged by the US government.
Huawei, now the No. 2 smartphone manufacturer in the world ahead of Apple, faces 23 criminal charges spanning two separate indictments by the US Department of Justice. It breaks down to 13 counts of financial fraud, Iran sanctions violations and money laundering, and 10 counts of theft and charges stemming from that action.
«Criminal activity goes back at least 10 years and goes all the way to the top of the company,» said US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in a press conference unsealing the indictments.
The first set of criminal charges surround Huawei CFO Wanzhou Meng and a little-known affiliate named Skycom. Meng, who happens to be the Huawei co-founder’s daughter, was arrested in Canada in early December and faces extradition to the US.
Skycom is said to be a Huawei affiliate set up to do business in Iran and undermine US trade sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. The US government accuses Huawei of covering up this fact by lying and committing bank and wire fraud, and it singles out Meng in particular.
«As early as 2007, Huawei employees began to misrepresent its relationship with its Iranian affiliate,» said Whitaker. «Huawei employees had allegedly told banking partners that Huawei had sold its ownership interest in Skycom.»
That didn’t happen according to the indictment, with Whitaker noting, «In reality, Huawei had sold Skycom to itself.
