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(Adds effect of coronavirus on case, other background)
By Karen Freifeld and Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies Co
Ltd, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, on
Wednesday pleaded not guilty in a New York federal court to new
charges in a 2018 case against the company.
The latest indictment accused Huawei of conspiring to steal
trade secrets from six U.S. technology companies for two
decades, lying about its business in North Korea and helping
Iran track protesters during the 2009 anti-government
demonstrations in that country.
Huawei had previously been charged by the U.S. government
with bank fraud and violating sanctions against Iran by using
Skycom Tech Co, a suspected front company, to obtain U.S. goods
and move money via the international banking system. It pleaded
not guilty to those charges last year.
At an arraignment in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Thomas
Green, a U.S. lawyer for Huawei, entered the not guilty plea on
behalf of the company and three subsidiaries, including
Futurewei Technologies Inc, its U.S.-based research arm.
At a hearing following the arraignment, Green said the
coronavirus outbreak may delay the progress of the case, noting
the company's lawyers were unable to travel to China.
"Our efforts here at defending our client have become more
complicated because of this virus," he said.
Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is fighting
extradition from Canada in connection with the original
indictment in the case, which accuses her of misrepresenting
Huawei's relationship with Skycom to the global bank HSBC
Holdings Plc. She has said she is innocent.
Huawei has said the new charges are aimed at damaging its
reputation for competitive reasons. It has called the trade
secret theft accusations "a contrived repackaging of a handful
of civil allegations that are almost 20 years old." A
spokeswoman for the company declined further comment on
Wednesday.
Reuters exclusively reported last year that an internal
probe by HSBC helped lead to the original U.S. charges against
Huawei and its CFO.
In a Feb. 10 letter to the court, Huawei's lawyers said that
they are entitled to documents from the HSBC investigation. They
said the documents "appear certain to directly contradict"
allegations in the indictment. Huawei claims U.S. prosecutors
overlooked apparent violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran by
the bank in exchange for cooperation with its Huawei
investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon said at
Wednesday's hearing that prosecutors would work with the company
to respond to the request.
The United States has waged a global campaign against
Huawei, warning that its equipment could be used by the Chinese
government for spying. In May, it also placed world's No. 2
smartphone vendor on a trade blacklist, banning U.S. suppliers
from doing business with Huawei without approval.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman and Chris Sanders)
