via TechRadar - All the latest technology news http://bit.ly/2Upqzzj The chance you'll see Huawei phones and routers in the US grew ble...
The chance you'll see Huawei phones and routers in the US grew bleaker today, as Chinese telecom firm has officially been criminally charged by the US government.
Huawei is facing 23 criminal charges spanning two separate indictments by the US Department of Justice. It breaks down to 13 counts of financial fraud and 10 counts of theft and charges stemming from that action.
The first set of criminal charges surround Huawei CFO Wanzhou Meng, who also happens to be the co-founder's daughter, and a Huawei affiliate called Skycom. Meng was arrested in Canada in early December and faces extradition to the US.
Skycom is said to be a Huawei affiliate that was doing business in Iran, though the US government accuses Huawei of covering up this fact with lying and committing bank and wire fraud to cover its tracks. It was all in an effort to undermine US sanctions, according to the Department of Justice.
You may recall that Chinese telecom firm and Huawei rival ZTE illegally did business with Iran and covered it up. It culminated in a seven-year ban on doing business with US companies, essentially giving a 'death sentence' for the Android phone maker. President Trump eventually stepped in.
Tappy on trial
The second indictment against Huawei surrounds the theft of trade secrets in 2012. T-Mobile made a phone-testing robot named 'Tappy'
Huawei allegedly wanted to build their own robot for testing phones, so its engineers secretly took photos measurements of 'Tappy.' It's also accused of stealing a piece of the robot so that the Huawei engineers in China could try to replicate it, according to the Department of Justice.
When T-Mobile threatened to sue, Huawei claimed that this theft was by 'route actors' within the company. However, the US government says it has emails that point to a conspiracy to steal secrets from T-Mobile and that it was indeed a company-wide effort.
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