US lays criminal charges against Huawei

The United States Justice Department has laid criminal charges against Chinese smartphone and networking technology vendor Huawei.

Filed in New York on Monday, there are 13 counts in the indictment relating to bank and wire fraud, violating US sanctions previously placed on Iran and the obstruction of justice in relation to the prior.

This comes after Canada arrested the company’s CFO Meng Wanzhou late last year.

Huawei and Wanzhou deny the allegations.

In a statement, the Chinese company said that it was “disappointed to learn of the charges”.

“The company denies that it or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of the asserted violations of US law set forth in each of the asserted violations” Full statement from #Huawei, in response to DOJ indictments pic.twitter.com/5YPLpU75z2

— Akiko Fujita (@AkikoFujita) January 29, 2019

The indictment come at a tense time for US and Chinese trade relations, and especially for Huawei itself, which this week announced its first 5G smartphone modem.

Feature image: Memeburn