US Accuses Huawei of Stealing Trade Secrets, Defrauding Banks (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against Huawei, China's largest smartphone maker, alleging it stole trade secrets from an American rival and committed bank fraud by violating sanctions against doing business with Iran. Huawei has been the target of a broad U.S. crackdown, including allegations it sold telecommunications equipment that could be used by the China's Communist Party for spying. The charges filed Monday also mark an escalation of tensions between the world's two largest economies, which are mired in a trade war that has roiled markets. In a 13-count indictment in Brooklyn, New York, the government alleged Huawei, two affiliated companies and its chief financial officer of fraud and conspiracy in connection with deals in Iran. A 10-count indictment in Washington state accused the company of stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile and offering bonuses to employees who succeeded in getting technology from rivals.

T-Mobile sued Huawei and its U.S.-based unit, Huawei Device USA Inc., in 2014, and three years later, a federal jury in Seattle found Huawei liable for both breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. A person familiar with the case, who sought anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak, said T-Mobile's claims regarding the theft of its technology caught the attention of federal authorities in the Western District of Washington. T-Mobile said Huawei sent its engineers to T-Mobile's Bellevue, Washington, facility to see a robot, called "Tappy," which simulates smartphone use. T-Mobile said in its lawsuit that Huawei was able to use stolen parts from the robot to "develop, improve and troubleshoot its own robot." Separately, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on allegations that she committed fraud to sidestep sanctions against Iran. "The U.S., which had requested Canadian authorities arrest Meng, must submit a formal extradition request for her by Jan. 30," Bloomberg reports. "Canada's justice minister then has up to 30 days to assess it. If she issues an 'authority to proceed,' that means Canada is officially moving to extradition hearings. If so, they would likely be scheduled months later."

Comments

FAILURE TO COMPETE

[Anonymous Coward]

Huawei won the race to 5G. Sure they might have had state backing.
But US companies had all the funds the Fed was shovelling for the last 10 years and they did nothing but sack their R&D, pay C-suite billions in bonuses, and fuck over customers with monopoly rates and shitty service.
US Capitalism elected to stand still for 10 years and shit themselves after Huawei pulled off a Sputnik-style vertical launch platform with 5G.

Yeah, NSA is mad, but deep down at the bottom of this is the simple truth that post-crisis US companies are unable to complete AT ALL and now need heavy handed Government proscription of competition to survive. This will extend to Japanese and EU companies as the US lead in technology falls as far behind as the US production base.

Not that you will ever hear about it in the media.

Re:FAILURE TO COMPETE

[rtb61]

Stolen, what a crock of shite. It was given away by US corporations who wanted to break the backs of US Unions by purposefully shifting out all jobs, impoverishing US workers and leaving them desperate and willing to accept crumbs. China stole it, fuck off, the US gave it away because they were short term thinking psychopathic cunts and they were warned of this outcome years ago, I should now, I participated in the warnings but short term insane psychopathic thinking, could not see beyond destroying American unions, with corporate executives having all the power to dominate the globe, insane shite from the insane. The outcome well you killed the unions but killed your industry at the same time, big fucking win, you idiotic morons.

All that is happening now, it that it is making the US, look like insanely corrupt psychopaths for whom the rule of law means nothing and bullshit is everything, they just lie, all of the fucking time, lie, lie, lie, it never stops and the world is just responding back with lip service now, nobody trust the US government at all and especially not Americans. Look at the fucking spectacle you are making of yourselves, only overweening absurd arrogance is hiding the reality from Americans. Still think they are winning, whilst actually losing all over the place.

Cisco equipment with NSA addons

[thesjaakspoiler]

I do recall that the NSA was intercepting Cisco hardware to install backdoors on those systems. https://arstechnica.com/tech-p... Obama was all about change so that is maybe why he didn't make a big deal out of those NSA changes.

Huawei stole trade secrets from American rival?

[najajomo]

“U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against Huawei, China's largest smartphone maker, alleging it stole trade secrets from an American rival and committed bank fraud by violating sanctions against doing business with Iran.”

The alleged trade secrets being a robot arm called tappy. They could have saved themselves the bother and bought one direct from Epson. The real story being this prosecution being used as a pretext to hinder Chinese firms doing business in the US. This prosecution being pushed by the corporate owners of America. Another sign that there is no one in the driving seat in Washington.