U.S. Charges Huawei with Technology Theft and Fraud in Major Federal Indictments (2019)
In January 2019 , the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a set of serious criminal charges against Huawei Technologies Co. and some of its U.S. subsidiaries, alleging a wide‑ranging conspiracy involving technology theft, fraud, and obstruction of justice . These charges marked a major escalation in legal pressure on one of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment makers. Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York and the Western District of Washington accused Huawei of a series of alleged crimes, including: Huawei was charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets from U.S. technology companies. One of the best‑known examples involved a robotics device called “Tappy,” used by T‑Mobile USA to test smartphones. According to prosecutors, Huawei engineers gained access to T‑Mobile laboratory technology while under confidentiality agreements, copied sensitive design details, and used the information to benefit Huawei’s own products. The indictment also ...