INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
China's Huawei Technologies has pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court to new charges in a 2018 case against the company.The
latest indictment against the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker accused the firm of conspiring to steal trade secrets
from six US technology companies for two decades, lying about its business in North Korea and helping Iran to track protesters during
anti-government demonstrations that took place in the country during 2009.The US government had previously charged Huawei with bank fraud
and violating sanctions against Iran by using a suspected front company called Skycom Tech Co to obtain US goods and move money using the
international banking system
The company also pleaded not guilty to those charges last year.In the latest case against Huawei, a US lawyer for the firm named Thomas
Green entered a not guilty plea on behalf of the company and three subsidiaries, including its US-based research arm Futurewei Technologies
Inc, at an arraignment in the US District Court in Brooklyn.Huawei's CFO and daughter of the company's CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei,
Meng Wanzhou is currently fighting extradition from Canada in connection with the original indictment in the case
She is accused of misrepresenting the company's relationship with Skycom to the global bank HSBC, though she has said that she is
innocent.According to Huawei, the new charges against the firm are clearly aimed at damaging the company's reputation for competitive
In a letter to the court sent in February, Huawei's lawyers said that they are entitled to see the documents from HSBC's investigation
The firm claims that US prosecutors overlooked violations of sanctions against Iran by HSBC in exchange for cooperation with its
investigation into Huawei.During the hearing in Brooklyn, Assistant US Attorney Alexander Solomon said that prosecutors would work with the
company to respond to the request to see HSBC's documents.Via Reuters
