US federal prosecutors are investigating whether Huawei allegedly stole trade secrets from partners including T-Mobile, according to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal. The probe is reportedly at an “advanced stage” and is in part spurred by Huawei’s actions surrounding a T-Mobile smartphone testing tool known as “Tappy.” Back in 2014, T-Mobile sued Huawei for allegedly gaining access to a company lab outside of Seattle and taking unauthorised photos of the robotic smartphone testing device. In 2017 a court awarded T-Mobile USD 4.8 million after it found Huawei breached its contract with the network operator.
The news comes after Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei dismissed allegations that Huawei is a threat to US national security. In his first appearance before foreign media since 2015, Ren Zhengfei said Huawei has no regular contact with the Chinese government and hasn’t been asked to share "improper information" about its partners. Ren’s daughter and Huawei CFO Sabrina Meng Wanzhou was taken into custody in Canada last month at the request of a US prosecutor for allegedly evading US sanctions against Iran.
