The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI are charging Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and two U.S. subsidiaries with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
A 16-count superseding indictment in federal court in Brooklyn, New York cites a long-running practice of using fraud and deception to misappropriate sophisticated technology from U.S. counterparts. The Department of Justice alleges that Huawei, and several of its subsidiaries, both in the U.S. and in the People’s Republic of China, misappropriated intellectual property, including from six U.S. technology companies, including intellectual property, trade secrets and copyrighted works, such as source code and user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology and robot testing technology.
The indictment states that as a result of this campaign to steal this technology and intellectual property, “Huawei was able to drastically cut its research and development costs and associated delays, giving the company a significant and unfair competitive advantage.”
