Chinese tech giant Huawei on Tuesday denied committing any of the violations cited in a U.S. indictment accusing the company of stealing technology, violating trade sanctions and lying to banks.
The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Monday that allege the company used extreme efforts to steal trade secrets from American businesses — including trying to take a piece of a robot from a T-Mobile lab that was used to test smartphones.
The company said U.S. prosecutors had rejected a request it made to discuss the investigation following the arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada in December. It also noted that the allegations in the trade secrets charge were the subject of a U.S. civil lawsuit that already has been settled.
The U.S. is seeking to extradite Meng, alleging that Huawei did business in Iran through a Hong Kong company called Skycom and that she misled U.S. banks into believing the two companies were separate.
There is no allegation Huawei was working at the direction of the Chinese government. In past instances, the U.S. government has singled out Beijing in corporate or digital espionage and has recently charged several Chinese hackers and intelligence officials.