The DOJ charges Huawei as a corporate racketeering enterprise with bank fraud, wire fraud, trade secret theft, sanctions-related fraud, money laundering and obstruction. Prosecutors say Huawei used Hong Kong shell Skycom to do business in Iran while deceiving HSBC and other banks, and stole technology from T-Mobile, Cisco and others. Huawei pleads not guilty to all counts. Prosecutors dropped two IEEPA export-control counts and a Motorola predicate before trial. About 13 counts remain.
LATEST DEVELOPMENT · SEP 10, 2026
Testimony began the week of September 10, 2026, with witnesses describing alleged trade-secret theft from Japan’s Fujitsu, including an incident in which a Huawei engineer was caught covertly photographing Fujitsu fiber-optic technology at a Chicago trade show in 2004. The defense argued Meng Wanzhou’s prior admissions were part of a negotiated statement of fact and pressed prosecution witnesses on bias.
BACKGROUND
The case began as a sealed indictment filed in August 2018 and became public the following year, arising from a years-long FBI and grand jury investigation into Huawei’s use of a Hong Kong shell company, Skycom, to conduct business in Iran while allegedly misleading HSBC and other global banks about the relationship. The affair triggered a major diplomatic incident when Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 at the request of US authorities, prompting China to detain two Canadians in an episode widely seen as retaliatory. A 2020 superseding indictment broadened the case dramatically, adding a racketeering conspiracy theory (RICO) and a conspiracy to steal trade secrets from US companies including T-Mobile and Cisco, on top of the original bank fraud, wire fraud, sanctions and money laundering counts.
Meng’s personal exposure was resolved separately. In September 2021, she entered a deferred prosecution agreement, admitting to a statement of facts about misleading a bank, and was released from house arrest in Vancouver to return to China. The US formally moved to dismiss the charges against her in December 2022 once she complied with the agreement’s terms, removing her as a defendant, though the underlying corporate case against Huawei and its subsidiaries continued.
Huawei has spent years attacking the case’s legal foundations, arguing the racketeering theory strung together unrelated events, that some conduct was impermissibly extraterritorial, and that the indictment was unconstitutionally vague. Judge Ann Donnelly rejected the core of those arguments in 2025, and in June 2026 ruled that Meng’s 2021 admissions could be used against the corporate defendants at trial, a significant evidentiary win for the government. Days before trial, prosecutors narrowed their own case, dropping two export-control counts and one trade-secret predicate tied to a company widely identified as Motorola, leaving twelve of the original counts for the jury.
Jury selection began on September 8, 2026, and opening statements followed the next day in Brooklyn, with the trial expected to run roughly three months. The proceeding lands squarely in the middle of a delicate moment in US-China relations, opening just over two weeks before a planned meeting between President Trump and President Xi Jinping, and unfolding as Huawei anchors China’s push toward chip and AI self-sufficiency.
TIMELINE
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SEP 10, 2026HEARINGTrial testimony begins on alleged Fujitsu trade-secret theftThe Brooklyn trial entered its evidentiary phase with witnesses testifying about alleged trade-secret theft from Fujitsu, including a 2004 incident in which a Huawei engineer was allegedly caught covertly photographing Fujitsu’s fiber-optic technology at a Chicago trade show.
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SEP 9, 2026HEARINGOpening statements deliveredDOJ trial attorney Taylor Stout told jurors Huawei’s conduct amounted to two decades of “theft, lies, cover-up,” while defense attorney Brian Heberlig of Steptoe called the case one of competition rather than conspiracy.
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SEP 8, 2026HEARINGJury selection begins in BrooklynJury selection opened before Judge Donnelly, with prospective jurors completing lengthy questionnaires probing views on China and Iran.
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SEP 4, 2026PROCEDURALProsecutors narrow the case before trialIn a filing days before trial, the government dropped two IEEPA export-control counts and a trade-secret theft predicate tied to a company widely identified as Motorola, leaving twelve counts for the jury.
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JUN 2026PROCEDURALDonnelly rules Meng’s DPA admissions admissible against HuaweiThe court ruled that admissions Meng Wanzhou made in her 2021 statement of facts could be used as evidence against the corporate defendants at trial.
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JUL 2025PROCEDURALJudge Donnelly denies bid to dismiss core chargesJudge Donnelly rejected Huawei’s motion to dismiss most of the original counts, ruling prosecutors had sufficiently alleged that Skycom operated as a Huawei-controlled Iranian subsidiary.
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DEC 2022PROCEDURALCharges against Meng Wanzhou dismissedHaving complied with the deferred prosecution agreement, prosecutors moved to formally dismiss the charges against Meng, removing her as a defendant while the corporate case continued.
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SEP 24, 2021SETTLEMENTMeng Wanzhou enters deferred prosecution agreement, releasedMeng admitted to a statement of facts about misleading a bank regarding Huawei’s Iran dealings, entered a DPA with the DOJ, and was released from house arrest in Vancouver to return to China.
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FEB 13, 2020FILINGSuperseding indictment adds RICO and trade-secret theft chargesProsecutors filed a broadened superseding indictment adding a racketeering conspiracy charge and a conspiracy to steal trade secrets from multiple US companies, on top of the original fraud and sanctions counts.
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MAR 14, 2019PROCEDURALHuawei pleads not guilty to 13-count indictmentHuawei and its US subsidiary were arraigned before Judge Donnelly in Brooklyn and entered not-guilty pleas to all counts, with attorney James Cole entering the plea on the company’s behalf.
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JAN 28, 2019FILINGDOJ unseals twin indictments against HuaweiThe Justice Department announced two indictments, one in EDNY covering bank fraud and Iran sanctions evasion, and one in the Western District of Washington covering trade secret theft from T-Mobile.
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DEC 1, 2018OTHERHuawei CFO Meng Wanzhou arrested in VancouverCanadian authorities arrested Meng at the request of the United States, triggering a major diplomatic rift between Washington, Ottawa and Beijing.
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AUG 22, 2018FILINGSealed indictment filed in EDNYFederal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed the original sealed indictment against Huawei and Skycom, later unsealed alongside a companion case.