Feds take on Chinese tech giant at trial over Iranian sanctions

Jury selection opened Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court in the criminal case against Huawei Technologies, accused of concealing its control of Iran-linked firm Skycom to evade sanctions and running a 20-year scheme to steal trade secrets from U.S. tech companies, including offering employee bonuses for stolen competitor information. Prosecutors say Skycom helped Iran's government conduct domestic surveillance, including during 2009 Tehran protests.

The case follows Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou's 2021 deferred prosecution agreement, in which she admitted misleading a bank executive about Huawei's Iran operations; Huawei still faces 14 charges including racketeering conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, though prosecutors dropped two sanctions-related counts to shorten a trial expected to last three months. Judge Ann Donnelly ruled Meng's admission can be used against the company itself.

Huawei has pleaded not guilty, calling the government's account ‘demonstrably false’ and attributing its technology to hundreds of billions of dollars in R&D over 40 years, citing more than 165,000 active patents and operations in over 170 countries. Prosecutors have also asked to close the courtroom during three witnesses' testimony over retaliation concerns, a request the press has opposed.

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