The U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China tech giant Huawei and the daughter of its founder and president Ren Zhengfei.
On Monday The Justice Department also announced charges against Huawei for allegedly stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile. The charges stem from a civil trade secrets lawsuit filed by T-Mobile in 2014 over a robot called "Tappy," which was used in testing smartphones.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker confirmed during a press conference that the Justice Department is seeking the extradition of Meng Wanzhou from Canada.
"We plan to file our formal extradition request and all the necessary documentation under the extradition treaty in the appropriate time frame," Whitaker said. There is a January 30 deadline for the request to be submitted.
Huawei Technologies Co Ltd Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was set to appear in a Canadian court today to discuss changes to her bail terms, according to British Columbia Supreme Court schedules.
Canada arrested Meng on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States, which on Monday charged Meng and two affiliates with bank and wire fraud to violate sanctions against Iran.
After Ms. Meng's arrest, the Company sought an opportunity to discuss the Eastern District of New York investigation with the Justice Department, but the request was rejected without explanation.
The allegations in the Western District of Washington trade secret indictment were already the subject of a civil suit that was settled by the parties after a Seattle jury found neither damages nor willful and malicious conduct on the trade secret claim.
The Company denies that it or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of the asserted violations of U.S. law set forth in each of the indictments, is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng, and believes the U.S. courts will ultimately reach the same conclusion.
According to the Huawei indictment involving T-Mobile, Huawei allegedly used its supplier relationship with the mobile phone carrier to steal information, and even parts, from a robot that tested the sensitivity of cell phones.
The T-Mobile allegations say the trade secrets theft involved a top-down effort to gain knowledge of the robot, starting with a 2012 conference call in which a Huawei China engineer queried U.S.-based Huawei employees extensively about the robot, how it worked and requested they take photos of it from different angles and obtain serial numbers.
In its previous civil case against Huawei for the alleged thefts, Huawei said the robot was "common knowledge" and that it didn't steal T-Mobile's trade secrets.
