Huawei can't wriggle out of Iran sanctions trial, judge rules

Dismissal bid denied as 16-count indictment moves toward court in May 2026

Huawei will still have to face trial in the US next year over alleged breaches of sanctions against Iran after a judge declined its request to dismiss various charges.

US District Judge Ann Donnelly rejected [PDF] the China-based technology giant's bid to dismiss all but three counts of the 16-count indictment against it, saying the challenge was premature "because it is not yet clear what the defendant did."

Huawei had tried to argue that specific counts should be dismissed because of a lack of evidence, that they failed to state an offense or they violated due process, but Judge Donnelly declared the company's arguments to be without merit.

The charges in part relate to historic business dealings with Iran by a Huawei partner, Skycom, but the 52-page ruling also lists allegations of conspiracy to steal trade secrets and bank fraud.

On trade secrets, the charges include several counts of industrial espionage, with the indictment claiming that from 2000 through 2018, Huawei executed a scheme to "operate and grow" its worldwide business through the "deliberate and repeated misappropriation of intellectual property" of American companies.

One such example given is "Company 1." Huawei and Futurewei, its US-based R&D arm, are alleged by the US Justice Department to have stolen from Company 1 "operating system source code for internet routers, command line interface and operating system manuals."

The counts regarding defrauding financial institutions also encompass the Iran charges, which include the allegation that the biz "repeatedly misrepresented" to the US government and financial institutions that any business conducted in Iran was "in a manner that did not violate applicable US law."

In the court documents, the US alleges Huawei operated Skycom as an "unofficial subsidiary" in order to obtain otherwise prohibited technology and services, including banking services, for its business dealings in Iran, while concealing the link between the companies.

According to the indictment, this alleged deception helped the Iranian government install surveillance equipment that was used to monitor, identify, and detain protesters against the regime.

Last year, Judge Donnelly agreed a schedule leading up to a trial sometime in 2026 – now understood to be set for May 4 – after prosecutors said that settlement talks with Huawei regarding the case had failed.

Earlier, Canadian authorities had detained Huawei CFO and chair Meng Wanzhou in connection with the case, at the behest of the US. Meng was allowed to return to China at the end of 2022 after reaching a deal with the Department of Justice that dropped fraud and conspiracy charges against her in exchange for an admission that she made false statements about her company's business dealings with Iran.

In her ruling, the judge cites the legal standard for indictments, which "need do little more than to track the language of the statute charged and state the time and place (in approximate terms) of the alleged crime," and that "dismissal of charges is an extraordinary remedy reserved only for extremely limited circumstances implicating fundamental rights."

Rejecting Huawei's request for dismissal, Donnelly says that "indictments do not have to specify evidence or details of how the offense was committed," as these are details that the government intends to prove at trial.

The Register asked Huawei to comment on this latest development. ®