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As we've said before, Huawei is in trouble outside of their home country. Last month, the DoJ charged Huawei and several executives with 23 crimes, but Bloomberg recently published a report claiming that U.S government is conducting an entirely separate investigation. The report alleges that Huawei tried to reverse engineer Akhan Semiconductor's proprietary screen hardening tech when the small company sent Huawei a sample. After talking to the FBI a few weeks later, they "took a very keen interest" in Akhan's problems, as the diamond coating used in their glass has potential military applications. Today, a Chinese official issued a fresh statement claiming that there's "No evidence Huawei a national security threat," but the Akhan investigation is still ongoing, and the company's latest statements say they "still have not recovered all of our product from Huawei, despite repeated written and oral requests and inquiries to Huawei."
The FBI raided Huawei's San Diego facility on the morning of Jan. 28. That evening, the two special agents and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kessler briefed Khan and Shurboff by phone. The agents described the scope of the search warrant in vague terms and instructed Khan and Shurboff to have no further contact with Huawei. Khan and Shurboff don't know how the story will end. It's possible that the government will conclude there aren't grounds for an indictment against Huawei. Prosecutors also could decide that what happened to Akhan isn't serious enough to seek charges. If that's so, it raises a question about the broader U.S. crackdown on Huawei: Is it based on hard evidence of wrongdoing or driven by a desperation to catch the Chinese company doing something-anything-bad? On the other hand, if the government does conclude that Akhan was attacked, that a Chinese multinational really did target a tiny Chicago company with no revenue and no customers (as of yet), it would show just how far and wide Huawei is willing to go to steal American trade secrets. "I think they're identifying technologies that are key to their road map and going after them no matter what the size or scale or status of the business," Khan says. "I wouldn't say they're discriminating."
The FBI raided Huawei's San Diego facility on the morning of Jan. 28. That evening, the two special agents and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kessler briefed Khan and Shurboff by phone. The agents described the scope of the search warrant in vague terms and instructed Khan and Shurboff to have no further contact with Huawei. Khan and Shurboff don't know how the story will end. It's possible that the government will conclude there aren't grounds for an indictment against Huawei. Prosecutors also could decide that what happened to Akhan isn't serious enough to seek charges. If that's so, it raises a question about the broader U.S. crackdown on Huawei: Is it based on hard evidence of wrongdoing or driven by a desperation to catch the Chinese company doing something-anything-bad? On the other hand, if the government does conclude that Akhan was attacked, that a Chinese multinational really did target a tiny Chicago company with no revenue and no customers (as of yet), it would show just how far and wide Huawei is willing to go to steal American trade secrets. "I think they're identifying technologies that are key to their road map and going after them no matter what the size or scale or status of the business," Khan says. "I wouldn't say they're discriminating."