Investing.com - Federal prosecutors may soon indict Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies for allegedly stealing trade secrets from U.S. partners including T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS), accoridng to a published report.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday the criminal probe stems in part from T-Mobile's successful suit that found Huawei liable for misappropriating robotic technology used to test smartphones at T-Mobile's lab in Bellevue, Wash. In 2017, a Seattle jury awarded T-Mobile $4.8 million in the case, originally filed in 2014.
The U.S. has been scrutinizing Huawei for some time because of concerns the company's gear could be used to spy on Americans. The probe has effectively blocked the Chinese company from installing its equipment in major U.S. networks. The investigation comes amid a broad push by the Trump administration to aggressively pursue claims of intellectual property theft and technology transfer by Chinese companies, the Journal said.
The company had no comment on the report, the Journal said. The Justice Department also declined comment. But company founder Ren Zhengfei said at a rare news conference Tuesday that Huawei hasn’t -- and would never -- spy on behalf of the Chinese government.
Pressure on Huawei has been growing. Ren's daughter, the company's chief financial officer, was detained last month in Canada on suspicion of misleading banks about the company's relationship with Iran. Polish authorities arrested a Huawei executive last week on espionage charges.