Huawei pleads not guilty to racketeering in beefed-up US case
- Revised indictment accuses firm of stealing trade secrets from US tech companies, lying about business in North Korea and helping Iran track protesters
- Chinese telecoms giant calls charges ‘unfounded and unfair’ before entering plea in federal court in New York
Huawei Technologies pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to racketeering charges filed last month by US prosecutors who accused the Chinese telecommunications giant of a 20-year pattern of corporate espionage.
The company had called the charges “unfounded and unfair” before entering its plea in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on Wednesday.
Huawei and its Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou already were facing charges that they evaded US sanctions on Iran and lied to American authorities.
Prosecutors in February unveiled a revised indictment that seeks a stiff punishment under federal racketeering law for the company’s alleged conspiracy to steal intellectual property from a half-dozen US firms over the years.
The latest indictment also accused Huawei of lying about its business in North Korea and helping Iran track protesters during the 2009 anti-government demonstrations in that country.
The escalation of the criminal case comes as the Trump administration continues to brand Huawei a threat to national security while the company competes in the global battle for supremacy in fifth-generation wireless technology, or 5G.