Huawei played a significant role in shipping prohibited US equipment to Iran, internal documents indicate

The goods shipped included HP computer equipment as well as software from American software firms

Chinese technology giant Huawei was directly involved in shipping US-sourced equipment to an Iranian company, in violation of US sanctions on Iran. The documents contradict the company's repeated denials of involvement in the trade.

That's according to Reuters, which recently got hold of two Huawei packing lists from December 2010, showing that the Chinese firm sold over $10 million worth of equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone carrier MCI. The goods shipped included HP computer equipment (switches, servers, and other equipment) as well as software from multiple American companies including Microsoft, Novell and Symantec.

The report further states that Panda International, a company linked to Huawei, was also engaged in similar practices and supplied several items of equipment and software to Iranian firm.

"Currently the equipment is delivered to Tehran, and waiting for the custom clearance," an internal document from Huawei stated.

According to Reuters, Huawei may have used Panda International as a front company to buy and ship the US equipment to avoid scrutiny, something that Huawei has been doing for a number of years, US authorities claim.

The new revelation will strengthen the federal government's case against Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou. The case was brought in a federal court last year. The US government accused Huawei and Meng of committing multiple crimes, including bank and wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and violating American sanctions on Iran.

The government also alleged that Huawei used an unauthorised subsidiary in Iran, called Skycom Tech, to obtain the prohibited goods.

Huawei and Meng Wanzhou have, however, denied all charges against them.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested in Vancouver, Canada, in December 2018. She is currently fighting extradition from Canada to the US since her arrest.

In a statement, Huawei told Reuters that it was committed to comply with all applicable laws in the countries where the company operates.

HPE said that their contract terms forbade their partners or customers to ship the company's products to Iran.

"This remains true today," the company added.