Huawei was secretly spied on by the United States. That way, the country tried to gather evidence in the fraud case against the Chinese company. That’s what prosecutors in America have announced, Reuters writes.
The evidence was collected through electronic surveillance, but also through physical searches. The evidence was collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which requires the approval of a special court. The data collected in this way must be treated confidentially. As a result, details dealt with in the court case may not be made public.
Accusations
This FISA is normally used in cases involving espionage. In the case of Huawei, however, this is not the case. The Chinese company is accused of ignoring American sanctions against Iran and stealing American trade secrets from T-Mobile US. Top woman Meng Wanzhou is also suspected of bank fraud and deliberately obstructing the judiciary.
Wanzhou – who is also the daughter of the founder of Huawei – was arrested in Canada on 1 December. It was commissioned by the United States. Later she was released on bail, although she had to hand in her passport and wear an ankle bracelet.
Moreover, tensions have existed for some time between the US and Huawei and other Chinese companies. The US is afraid that Huawei will cooperate in espionage by the Chinese government, because for a long time there has been a law stating that companies must cooperate in all requests from the government. The country has called on allies to dump Huawei in building 5G networks. Several countries have already banned the company.
In the Netherlands, however, we would like to build a 5G network with equipment from the Chinese manufacturer. This is not yet banned, although the government is working on a policy on the increasing influence of Chinese companies.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.