(Bloomberg) -- U.S. prosecutors are pursuing a criminal investigation of Huawei Technologies Co. for allegedly stealing trade secrets from U.S. business partners, including T-Mobile US Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The probe emerged partly from civil lawsuits against the Chinese telecommunications company, including one in which a jury found Huawei liable for misappropriating robotic technology from T-Mobile, the paper said, without naming its sources. The investigation is at an advanced stage and an indictment could come soon, the Journal said, citing the people familiar. A Huawei spokesman declined to comment. The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Huawei has been under increasing pressure in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere amid growing concerns that Beijing could use the company's equipment for spying, something executives have denied. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been pushing European allies to block Huawei from telecom networks amid a wider dispute over trade with China. Last week, a company employee was arrested in Poland.
The company is also mired in a U.S. case alleging violations of trade sanctions. The U.S. alleges that Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, conspired to defraud banks to unwittingly clear transactions linked to Iran. Meng was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 and released on bail four weeks ago awaiting extradition hearings to the U.S. She is living under restrictions in her million-dollar Vancouver home.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jillian Ward in San Francisco at jward56@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Andrew Pollack
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