Chinese Agents Charged With Trying to Obstruct Case Against Huawei

The U.S. government charged two Chinese intelligence officers with attempting to obstruct a criminal case against Huawei, in the Eastern District of New York, DOJ said Monday. The charges against Guochun He and Zheng Wang were announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and other officials. The agents thought they recruited “an asset,” but the individual was “actually a double agent working on behalf of the FBI,” Garland said at a news conference: “The defendants paid a bribe to the double agent to obtain nonpublic information, including files from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District. They did so in the hope of obtaining the prosecution’s strategy memo, confidential information regarding witnesses, trial evidence and potentially new charges to be brought against” Huawei. The defendants, who are still at large, allegedly paid about $61,000 in Bitcoin bribes to the FBI agent, DOJ said. The complaint said the incident took place after January 2019. In 2020, the U.S. accused Huawei of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (see 2002130030). If convicted, He faces up to 60 years in prison, Wang up to 20 years, DOJ said. “Anyone still wanna make the case that concerns about Huawei are overblown?” tweeted Michael Sobolik, fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. “Sorry not sorry, Huawei is a tech cancer,” tweeted Nathan Leamer, an aide to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai: “We must secure our networks and kick them out.”