Huawei faces U.S. criminal trial over theft and sanctions allegations

A federal criminal trial has opened in Brooklyn against Huawei Technologies, with U.S. prosecutors alleging the Chinese telecommunications giant engaged in two decades of criminal conduct to dominate the global market. The indictment includes charges of racketeering, bank fraud, and sanctions violations.

Prosecutors claim Huawei conspired to steal trade secrets from five American companies, specifically citing the theft of operating system source code from Cisco Systems routers and the misappropriation of a robotic testing device, known as ‘Tappy’, from T-Mobile. U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Taylor Stout characterized the company’s actions as “theft, lies, cover-up,” alleging a pattern of victimizing American firms and abusing the U.S. financial system.

Regarding sanctions, the government alleges Huawei concealed operations in Iran to move U.S. dollars through the American financial system. The defense, led by Brian Heberlig, argues the case is about “competition, not conspiracy” and “innovation, not theft.” Huawei maintains that any misconduct was the result of isolated incidents by individual employees rather than a coordinated corporate criminal scheme, and argues the company lacked knowledge that clearing certain transactions would breach sanctions law.