Two alleged Chinese intelligence officers have been charged with attempting to obstruct the U.S. criminal investigation and prosecution of a Chinese corporation, according to court documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
While the company is not identified in the charging documents, references make clear that the company is telecommunications giant Huawei, which was charged with bank fraud in 2019, then again in 2020 with new counts of racketeering conspiracy and a plot to steal trade secrets.
The cases were announced at a Monday press conference that featured both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The two defendants, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, have been accused of trying to solicit confidential information about the DOJ’s investigation into Huawei from an individual working as a double agent for the U.S. government. The FBI oversaw the agent’s contacts with the Chinese men.
According to the DOJ, one of the defendants paid $61,000 for information that pertained to witnesses, trial evidence, and potential new charges.
The agent gave the defendants a single-page document appearing to contain classified information about a purported plan to charge and arrest Huawei executives in the United States, according to prosecutors.
However, that document was prepared by the government for purposes of the prosecution, and the information it contained was not true.
Huawei has previously called the federal investigation into its dealings “political persecution, plain and simple.”
While the DOJ has issued arrest warrants for the Chinese nationals, it is unclear if they will ever be taken into custody.
Eleven other Chinese nationals have been charged with various offenses in cases that FBI Director Christopher Wray said show that China’s “economic assaults and their rights violations are part of the same problem.”
“They try to silence anyone who fights back against their theft—companies, politicians, individuals—just as they try to silence anyone who fights back against their other aggressions,” he alleged. “If the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, continues to violate our laws, they’re going to keep encountering the FBI.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced separate charges against four other Chinese nationals, accusing them of using the cover of an academic institute in an attempt to obtain sensitive technology and equipment as well as interfering with protests that “would have been embarrassing to the Chinese government.”
