Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. News

U.S. accuses Huawei of orchestrating massive conspiracy to steal trade secrets

Allison Matyus
By

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has formally charged Chinese tech giant Huawei in a complex conspiracy aimed at stealing trade secrets from other technology companies to expand its own business. 

The DOJ charged the Chinese phone manufacturer, along with two U.S. subsidiaries, with “conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO),” according to a Thursday press release. 

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The charges against Huawei allege that the company “misappropriated intellectual property,” specifically from six U.S. technology companies whose names are not mentioned in court documents.

Recommended Videos

“The misappropriated intellectual property includes trade secret information and copyrighted works, such as source code and user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology, and robot-testing technology,” the press release says. 

Related

According to the charges, Huawei broke confidentiality agreements and recruited employees of other competitor companies. Once hired, it directed them to misappropriate their former employers’ intellectual property. Huawei also allegedly even offered a type of bonus reward program to its employees if they were able to obtain information from competitors, essentially paying them to spy on rival companies, according to the indictment.

The examples of Huawei attempting to obtain trade secrets go back nearly two decades — beginning in 2000 and ending as recently as 2019. In one instance, a Huawei worker attended a 2004 trade show in Chicago sporting a badge that listed his employer as “Weihua,” or Huawei spelled with its syllables reversed. The indictment says that the individual removed the cover from a networking device and took pictures of it. The company later said that the individual’s actions were his own.

In another instance, the indictment claims that a Huawei engineer improperly used their badge to get into a competitor company’s lab in 2013 and was able to take photos and gather other information before he was escorted out.

Huawei employees even allegedly stole actual items from companies in order to take measurements to be used for Huawei’s advantage. In one example, a Huawei employee allegedly stole a robotic arm in 2013 and later returned it only after sending Huawei information on the part.

The DOJ says that Huawei was successful in stealing these trade secrets, which opens up another issue: Tat the company had an unfair competitive advantage in the industry. 

Digital Trends reached out to Huawei to comment on the charges. We will update this story when we hear back. 

News of the charges comes just days after U.S. officials confirmed that Huawei is able to access worldwide telecom networks through backdoors that are usually meant only to be used by law enforcement. The company reportedly built equipment that “preserves the manufacturer’s ability to access networks through these interfaces without the carriers’ knowledge.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Allison Matyus
Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
The Nothing Phone 2 is real, and it’s coming to the U.S. this year
Nothing Phone 1 Glyph Interface lights.

The Nothing Phone 2 will be coming to the U.S. this year, CEO Carl Pei said today. The company previously launched its first entry into the smartphone market in Europe and Asia due to resource constraints.

“We decided to make the U.S. our No. 1 priority in terms of markets,” CEO Carl Pei said in an interview with Inverse. “We couldn't do it earlier because we were only in our second year and our hands were tied building the team as we were building the products. Now as we're on a more solid footing, we can take a step forward.”

Read more
The Nothing Phone 1 has finally launched in the U.S. — kind of
The Nothing Phone 1's camera module.

The Nothing Phone 1 launched globally last year with vague promises of a future U.S. release, but now Nothing fans don't have to wait any longer for the smartphone to make its way stateside. Soft-launching through a "Beta Membership," the Nothing Phone 1 is finally available for Americans who are willing to be a part of Nothing's test program before it officially launches with retailers later in 2023.

While it's certainly exciting for the Nothing Phone 1 to be making its way to the U.S., the release and branding of the membership program are a little odd. It gives fans the opportunity to try out the phone and test Nothing OS 1.5, which is based on Android 13 and represents a major update from Nothing OS 1.0's Android 12 foundation. If you want in, you need to pay $299.

Read more
The Nothing Phone is finally coming to the U.S., and I can’t wait
The Nothing Phone 1 held in a mans hand, seen from the back.

Nothing just announced that it has sold over 1 million combined units of its maiden smartphone and stylish earbuds, barely a year after its first product launched. The juicy revelation came courtesy of a CNBC interview, during which co-founder Carl Pei said the company is planning to bring its flashy smartphones to the U.S. market. 
The British upstart from the former OnePlus co-founder hasn’t put the Nothing Phone 1 on American retail shelves, despite the phone making positive waves in Europe and Asia. The company had argued that it was primarily focusing on markets where it has “strong partnerships with leading local carriers.”  

However, the company did commit to launching “a U.S.-supported mobile in the future.” Now, the confirmation comes straight from Pei, teh CEO. He cited “additional technical support, to support all the carriers and their unique customizations” as the reasons why the Nothing Phone 1 didn’t come to Apple’s home market. 

Read more