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HUAWEI is reportedly under investigation for breaching US-Iran sanctions

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for HUAWEI, they did.
By
April 25, 2018
TL;DR
  • The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating a potential HUAWEI violation relating to U.S.-Iran sanctions.
  • Not much information about the DoJ probe has been revealed at this time.
  • ZTE also violated U.S. trade laws with Iran, which resulted in a seven-year ban of U.S. equipment usage for the company.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for HUAWEI, they did.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether or not Huawei violated U.S. sanctions related to Iran. As of this writing, it’s unclear as to how far the Justice Department probe has advanced and what specific allegations U.S. federal agents are probing, reported The Journal on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

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This investigation arrives at a particularly inconvenient time, as the company has recently come under scrutiny regarding the influence of the Chinese government and potential for espionage in the United States. In response to the tougher-than-expected push into the U.S., HUAWEI even laid off five American employees, including its main U.S. lobbyist.

While not much information has been revealed, the existence of a U.S. probe could spell bad news if the company did in fact violate U.S. export laws. This could result in criminal penalties or even regulatory sanctions.

If this sounds at all familiar, it’s likely because ZTE came under fire last week for violating U.S. trade laws relating to Iran. The U.S. Department of Commerce has banned American companies from selling any hardware or software products to ZTE for the next seven years. This is detrimental to ZTE’s smartphone business, and to the company as a whole.

This is a developing story. We will update this article as we learn more information.