US charges two alleged Chinese spies with conspiracy to obstruct Huawei prosecution • TechCrunch

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped charges against two alleged DPRC spies accused of trying to obstruct a federal prosecution of a Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

In the criminal case dated October 20, a published On Monday, the US alleged that two Chinese intelligence officers, Guochun He (known as “Dong He”) and Zheng Wang (known as “Zeng Wang”), attempted to bribe a US law enforcement official to obtain what they believed to be inside is information about a US criminal case against “a global telecommunications company based in China.” The complaint does not name the company, but the details are consistent with a known criminal prosecution of the company. Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.

The complaint alleges that He and Wang “attempted to direct an individual they believed to be recruited as an asset” in a US government law enforcement agency “to obtain confidential information regarding potential new charges that may be brought against [Huawei] with the purpose of obstructing justice.”

The government alleges that He and Wang first developed a relationship with an unnamed law enforcement official in February 2017, but that the man “subsequently began working as a double agent for the U.S. government.”

The men are accused of trying to obtain confidential witness information and court evidence in the Huawei case and paying a double agent, called “GE-1,” $61,000. bitcoinmoney and jewelry for what they believed to be inside information about the Justice Department’s pending prosecution of a Chinese company.

At some point in October 2021, the indictment alleges, an undercover agent gave a one-page document labeled “SECRET” to a Chinese intelligence officer detailing U.S. plans to arrest two Huawei executives who were based in China. They paid an undercover agent $41,000 for just one page.

“The actions of the PRC intelligence officers charged in this case should be called far more than an effort to gather information or intelligence for what they are: an extraordinary intervention by agents of a foreign government to interfere with the immunity of US criminals. the justice system, to compromise a US government official and to obstruct US law for the benefit of a commercial enterprise based in the PRC,” said Assistant Attorney General for Homeland Security Matthew G. Olsen. “The Department of Justice will not allow interference by national government actors in U.S. criminal trials and investigations, and will not allow foreign interference in the fair administration of justice.”

If convicted, He and Wang face up to 60 years and 20 years in prison, respectively.

The case was one of three filed Monday related to alleged Chinese interference in the U.S. justice system. One in New Jersey charges three Chinese intelligence agents with conspiring to act in the U.S. as illegal agents on behalf of a foreign government, while another in the Eastern District of New York accuses several people working on behalf of the Chinese government of “engaging in a multi-year campaign of threats and harassment to force a US resident to return to China,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday.