Huawei hit with racketeering and fraud charges by US authorities
New charges against Huawei and four of its subsidiaries come as US authorities consider ratcheting up export controls on the Chinese networking hardware giant
US authorities have charged Huawei and four subsidiaries with 16 counts of racketeering, fraud and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
The charges were made as reports circulate that the US government is planning to increase restrictions on exports to the Chinese networking hardware, placed on a blacklist in May last year.
The charges were revealed last night when the federal indictment was unsealed, and lend weight to allegations made in January 2019 accusing the company of violating US sanctions on Iran. It was also accused of conducting a systematic campaign of industrial espionage, and of incentivising staff to steal other companies' technology.
Revealing the indictment, the US Department of Justice accused Huawei of engaging in an "alleged long-running practice of using fraud and deception to misappropriate sophisticated technology from US counterparts".
It adds that Huawei and its subsidiaries stole intellectual property from six US technology companies, including "trade secret information and copyrighted works, such as source code and user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology and robot testing technology".
Huawei has for many years been accused of engaging in intellectual property theft in order to fuel its fast growth. Indeed, the company admitted stealing portions of Cisco's IOS network operating system code in a well-publicised case almost 20 years ago. Huawei and Cisco eventually settled out of court.
Huawei has also been accused of stealing intellectual property from now-defunct Nortel, with Nortel's own network, all the way up to the CEO's own PC, alleged to have been compromised for a decade before its collapse by hackers linked to China.