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On February 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a 16-count federal superseding indictment charging Huawei and several related defendants with, among other offenses, conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and conspiracy to steal trade secrets. The announcement was an indictment—not a formal administrative designation of Huawei as a “corrupt organization,” and not a finding of guilt.

What the RICO charge meant in this case

RICO is the federal statute prosecutors used for one of the conspiracy charges. In its February 2020 announcement, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that Huawei and subsidiaries had pursued a decades-long effort to misappropriate intellectual property from six U.S. technology companies. The indictment also included a conspiracy-to-steal-trade-secrets charge.

Calling Huawei a “corrupt organization” is headline-style shorthand for the racketeering allegation. The DOJ releases cited here do not show a separate government designation by that name. They describe accusations brought in court, which would have to be proved through the legal process.

What prosecutors said was stolen

The DOJ said the alleged misappropriation involved intellectual property belonging to six U.S. technology companies. Examples in its announcement included:

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These are allegations attributed to prosecutors, not established findings of theft.

Who was named in the indictment

The superseding indictment in federal court in Brooklyn named Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Huawei Device Co. Ltd., Huawei Device USA Inc., Futurewei Technologies Inc., Skycom Tech Co. Ltd., and Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. The charges therefore named both corporate entities and an individual; the DOJ announcement did not say that Huawei alone was the defendant.

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How the RICO case related to the earlier Iran and Skycom allegations

The February 2020 indictment added the trade-secrets allegations to charges carried forward from an earlier case. The DOJ’s earlier Eastern District of New York announcement described allegations of bank fraud, wire fraud, sanctions violations, money laundering, and obstruction. Prosecutors tied those allegations to representations about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom and its business in Iran.

Issue February 2020 superseding indictment Earlier financial-fraud allegations
Charges described by DOJ Conspiracy to violate RICO and conspiracy to steal trade secrets, among charges in a 16-count indictment. Alleged bank fraud, wire fraud, sanctions violations, money laundering, and obstruction.
Conduct at issue Alleged misappropriation of intellectual property from six U.S. technology companies. Alleged deception concerning Huawei’s relationship with Skycom and its Iran business.
Procedural relationship Superseding indictment announced February 13, 2020; it added trade-secrets allegations to charges carried forward from the earlier indictment. Earlier allegations described in a DOJ announcement from the Eastern District of New York.

The two sets of allegations addressed different alleged conduct: technology-related intellectual-property misappropriation in the RICO and trade-secrets counts, and financial representations, sanctions, and related offenses in the earlier charges.

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What the indictment did—and did not—establish

An indictment states charges; it is not a verdict. The DOJ’s February 2020 release expressly said that the charges were allegations and that defendants were presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The cited announcements therefore support saying that Huawei and the named defendants were charged, not that a court convicted them or declared Huawei a corrupt organization.

The DOJ also presented the case as involving economic and national-security concerns. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the charges reflected how seriously the FBI viewed the threat it attributed to companies such as Huawei. That statement expressed the government’s position; it was not a judicial finding.

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