Theta Android News: US government indictment of Huawei released and it’s a pretty intense read

Thursday, February 13, 2020

US government indictment of Huawei released and it’s a pretty intense read

Today, in the federal court in Brooklyn, NY, the United States Department of Justice filed its Huawei indictment. The superseding indictment papers formally accuse the Chinese technology company of various crimes, including violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), intellectual property theft, and conspiring to steal trade secrets from competitors.

That Huawei indictment is now publicly accessible. You can read it here (that's a direct link to a PDF file).

Huawei has yet to make a statement on the formal indictment. However, it has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing over the years. Just recently, it denied allegations from the US that it uses secret backdoors to access mobile networks around the world.

The Huawei indictment itself is 56 pages long and filled with hard-to-understand legalese. However, here are some choice snippets we found:

"…deliberate and repeated misappropriation of intellectual property of companies headquartered or with offices in the United States…"
"To obtain the intellectual property of the Victim Companies, [Huawei] sometimes entered into confidentiality agreements with the owners of the intellectual property and then violated the terms of the confidentiality agreements by misappropriating the intellectual property for [Huawei's] own commercial use."
"Huawei established a formal rewards schedule to pay employees of Huawei affiliates for stealing information from competitors based upon the value of the information obtained."
"To avoid and minimize the costs of potential civil and criminal liability in the United States, and therefore more easily establish and operate Huawei's US business, the company engaged in a pattern of obstruction."

With this Huawei indictment filed, it appears there will be no end in sight for the so-called Huawei ban which prevents US-based firms from working with the company. As such, don't expect to see Google apps on any Huawei or Honor phones in the near future.