Huawei Chief Legal Officer Facing New Legal Challenge
The U.S. government announced new criminal charges against Huawei days after the Chinese telecom giant's chief legal officer, Song Liuping, accused rival Verizon Communications Inc. of patent infringement.
February 14, 2020 at 01:04 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Corporate Counsel
(Photo: Kapi Ng/Shutterstock.com)
Song Liuping's job isn't getting any easier.
Days after Song, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s chief legal officer, accused rival Verizon Communications Inc. of patent infringement, the U.S. government announced new criminal charges against the Chinese telecom giant.
Prosecutors filed a 56-page, 16-count superseding indictment in federal court in New York on Thursday that charges Huawei, four of the firm's "official and unofficial subsidiaries," and Huawei chief financial officer Wanzhou Meng with racketeering, conspiracy and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
Huawei reacted to the expanded indictment by issuing a lengthy statement on Friday that dismissed the latest charges as "political persecution, plain and simple."
"None of our products or technologies have been developed through the theft of trade secrets. Huawei's development is the result of our huge investment in R&D and the hard work of our employees over the past three decades," the company added.
The new charges allege that Huawei and its subsidiaries stole intellectual property, including robotics technology and source codes and user manuals for internet routers, from six U.S. tech firms.
Huawei and its subsidiaries also are accused of surreptitiously doing business in countries subject to U.S. sanctions, including Iran and North Korea. The company allegedly tried to hide its activities by giving the countries in question code names, such as "A2″ for Iran and "A9″ for North Korea.
Prosecutors further allege that an unofficial subsidiary of Huawei, Skycom Tech Co. Ltd., helped the Iranian government with domestic surveillance during violent protests over the presidential election in 2009 and at other times.
Asserting that the "U.S. government has been using the strength of an entire nation to come after a private company," Huawei said in its statement that the latest charges "do not reveal anything new."
In the new indictment, prosecutors allege that Huawei provided false affidavits and reports of what turned out to be sham internal investigations during the underlying civil investigation in an attempt to avoid civil and criminal liability.
In its response, Huawei argued that the "Department of Justice is reintroducing previously resolved civil cases as criminal cases. This is selective, politically-motivated enforcement of the law, and contrary to common judicial conventions."
The company added, "Attacking Huawei will not help the U.S. stay ahead of the competition. Repeating a lie will not make it true. We believe that the court will make a fair ruling based on facts and evidence."
While Song has spoken out in the past about the U.S. government's treatment of Huawei, his name did not appear in the company's latest statement.
Read More:
Huawei's Chief Legal Officer Takes Center Stage in Conflict With US
Huawei Chief Legal Officer Speaks Out Against Rival Verizon
Microsoft Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith Criticizes Trump's Tactics Against Huawei
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