Jury selection began Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, in the criminal trial of Huawei Technologies, eight years after US prosecutors secretly charged the company over its dealings with Iran. The company has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing. The proceedings before US District Judge Ann Donnelly are expected to last about three months.
Huawei faces 14 criminal charges, including racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to steal trade secrets, wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the US, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and conspiracies to launder money and obstruct justice. Prosecutors said Friday that they would not proceed at this trial with two charges under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
The case combines allegations concerning Huawei’s overseas business with claims that it sought confidential material from US technology companies. Prosecutors say the company operated a 20-year scheme between 2000 and 2020 to steal trade secrets from five US technology companies. The material allegedly included copyrighted source code, user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology and robot testing technology.
US prosecutors say Huawei offered bonuses to employees who obtained confidential information from competitors. One allegation concerns a Huawei engineer who in 2013 allegedly photographed and took a robotic arm from T-Mobile’s laboratory in Bellevue, Washington. The device was known as Tappy. T-Mobile received a $4.8 million civil verdict in 2017 in its dispute over the alleged theft.
The sanctions allegations centre on Skycom, described by US authorities as a Hong Kong shell company. Prosecutors accuse Huawei of using Skycom to obtain embargoed US goods, technology and services for Huawei’s Iran-based business. Skycom routed more than $100 million through US banks, according to the accusation.
Huawei employees are alleged to have falsely told banks that Skycom was not a Huawei subsidiary and that Huawei’s business in Iran was limited. Prosecutors also accuse the company of lying about its dealings in North Korea. The charges further allege that Huawei supplied surveillance equipment to Iran that was used to track protesters during anti-government demonstrations in Tehran in 2009.
Huawei previously sought dismissal of the case. In a 52-page decision in July 2025, Judge Donnelly rejected the company’s bid to dismiss 13 of the 16 criminal counts. The defence had argued that the allegations were too vague or extended US law beyond its proper reach, according to the case background. The company now faces the charges proceeding in Brooklyn as a corporate defendant.
The trial comes against the background of long-running US-China trade and geopolitical tensions involving Huawei, the world’s biggest supplier of gear for wireless telecom networks. The company was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019 and remains barred from selling equipment to US carriers. US sanctions have also blocked Huawei’s access to most US processor chips and other technology.
The proceedings are expected to overlap with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s scheduled September 24 meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington. The brief does not indicate what effect, if any, that wider political context will have on the trial or jury deliberations.
Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was initially charged with fraud in the wider case. She reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the US government in 2021 and is no longer a defendant in the Brooklyn trial. The case now concerns Huawei itself, with prosecutors seeking to prove the allegations at trial and the company maintaining its denial.
Comments (0)