The government accuses two men of trying to bribe a U.S. government official for intel on the ongoing prosecution of the Chinese tech giant Huawei.
EMILY ZANTOW / October 24, 2022
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington on Oct. 24, 2022, regarding charges brought this afternoon by his office. (Emily Zantow/Courthouse News Service)
WASHINGTON (CN) — The Department of Justice brought indictments Monday against 13 Chinese nationals, two of whom are said to be Chinese intelligence officers who paid bribes for information on the status of the Huawei prosecution.
Guochun He, 45, and Zheng Wang, 37, are charged in the Eastern District of New York with plotting to steal documents and other information. The two men allegedly paid about $61,000 in bitcoin to a U.S. government employee who they thought was in the Chinese government's pocket. Speaking about the case and two others Monday at a press conference in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the employee was actually a double agent working on behalf of the FBI.
“This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officers to shield a PRC-based company from accountability and to undermine the integrity of our judicial system,” Garland said.
He faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted, and Wang faces up 20 years in prison. Both are still at large.
Though references in the charging documents make clear that the Huawei case was the focus of the bribes, the company is not named in the charging papers. The Department of Justice brought bank fraud against Huawei in 2019 and added new counts a year later for conspiracy under federal anti-racketeering law and a plot to steal trade secrets.
Neither Huawei nor the Chinese Embassy in Washington has commented on the new indictments. Huawei has previously called the federal investigation “political persecution, plain and simple."
“Attacking Huawei will not help the U.S. stay ahead of the competition,” the company said in a 2020 statement.
Garland also spoke Monday about an indictment unsealed in the District of New Jersey, charging four Chinese nationals with a long-running campaign to try to influence people in the U.S. to act as foreign agents for China. Yet another case that Garland described involved the recent arrests of two of seven people charged in a yearslong harassment campaign to force a U.S. resident to return to China.
“As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. They did not succeed,” he said.
Garland was joined Monday by other top Justice Department brass, including Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen.
WASHINGTON (CN) — The Department of Justice brought indictments Monday against 13 Chinese nationals, two of whom are said to be Chinese intelligence officers who paid bribes for information on the status of the Huawei prosecution.
Guochun He, 45, and Zheng Wang, 37, are charged in the Eastern District of New York with plotting to steal documents and other information. The two men allegedly paid about $61,000 in bitcoin to a U.S. government employee who they thought was in the Chinese government's pocket. Speaking about the case and two others Monday at a press conference in Washington, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the employee was actually a double agent working on behalf of the FBI.
“This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officers to shield a PRC-based company from accountability and to undermine the integrity of our judicial system,” Garland said.
He faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted, and Wang faces up 20 years in prison. Both are still at large.
Though references in the charging documents make clear that the Huawei case was the focus of the bribes, the company is not named in the charging papers. The Department of Justice brought bank fraud against Huawei in 2019 and added new counts a year later for conspiracy under federal anti-racketeering law and a plot to steal trade secrets.
Neither Huawei nor the Chinese Embassy in Washington has commented on the new indictments. Huawei has previously called the federal investigation “political persecution, plain and simple."
“Attacking Huawei will not help the U.S. stay ahead of the competition,” the company said in a 2020 statement.
Garland also spoke Monday about an indictment unsealed in the District of New Jersey, charging four Chinese nationals with a long-running campaign to try to influence people in the U.S. to act as foreign agents for China. Yet another case that Garland described involved the recent arrests of two of seven people charged in a yearslong harassment campaign to force a U.S. resident to return to China.
“As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights. They did not succeed,” he said.
Garland was joined Monday by other top Justice Department brass, including Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen.
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