DoJ hits Huawei with racketeering, trade secret theft charges
Huawei and its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou have been hit by racketeering and theft of trade secrets charges, as the US expands and intensifies its attacks on the Chinese telecoms giant.
The charges, filed against Huawei, four of its US subsidiaries, and Wanzhou, include conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ( RICO).
The superseding indictment, returned to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, adds to similar charges filed last year.
Huawei sought to “drastically cut its research and development costs and associated delays, giving the company a significant and unfair competitive advantage,” said a US Department of Justice (DoJ) statement.
The indictment also includes a charge of conspiracy to steal trade secrets stemming from the “China-based company’s alleged practice of using fraud and deception to misappropriate sophisticated technology from US counterparts”, the statement added.
US prosecutors are alleging that Huawei broke the terms of partnership with several US companies, and actively sought to steal computer programming source code. This, claims the DoJ, was part of a “long-running” plan to steal technological secrets from US companies.
The statement doesn’t name the six businesses from which Huawei allegedly stole IP.
Huawei, a leading developer of 5G wireless technology and the owner of many patents in the field, is already facing several charges related to it allegedly implementing a rewards system to incentivise employees to steal trade secrets from competitors.
In September last year, Huawei vehemently rejected US allegations of technology theft and patent infringement, and accused US authorities of harassing its staff.
In an astonishing broadside, Huawei said the DoJ probe into the company was part of an effort to disrupt its business.
Huawei also claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had sent agents to its employees' homes and “pressured them to collect information on the company”.
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