U.S. Prosecutor Calls Huawei a ‘Criminal Enterprise’ as Trial Begins

A U.S. prosecutor on Wednesday accused Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei of operating a “criminal enterprise” that stole technology from American companies and abused the U.S. financial system to expand its global business. In opening arguments at a federal court in Brooklyn, Justice Department attorney Taylor Stout alleged that Huawei spent two decades engaging in theft, deception and cover-ups to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

Prosecutors said Huawei conspired to steal trade secrets from five U.S. companies, including router operating-system source code from Cisco Systems and a robotic arm used by T-Mobile to test mobile phones. The government also accused Huawei of concealing its business activities in Iran to circumvent U.S. sanctions and move millions of dollars through the American financial system, as well as helping Iranian authorities with surveillance capabilities.

Huawei’s defense rejected the allegations, arguing that the case was about legitimate competition and innovation rather than conspiracy or theft. Attorney Brian Heberlig said prosecutors were “cherry-picking” isolated incidents involving individual employees and portraying routine business activities as criminal conduct. The case, which began with an indictment in 2018 and later expanded to include racketeering charges, is expected to last about three months.

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