Huawei is at the center of a Department of Justice (DoJ) criminal complaint alleging the China-based telecom equipment provider was behind attempts to bribe a U.S. government official to steal documents related to an ongoing security investigation into the vendor. The issue will likely prevent Huawei from re-entering the U.S. 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment landscape.

The complaint was released earlier this week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. It lays out charges that two Chinese intelligence officers working at the behest of Huawei paid $61,000 in bitcoin to a “double agent” working in the in order to obtain FBI files tied to the ongoing investigation into Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government.

It alleges that Guochun He and Zheng Wang are agents for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who conducted foreign intelligence operations targeting the U.S. government and for the benefit of “Company-1.” The complaint does not specifically name Huawei as the “global telecommunications company,” but published reports link the vendor to the complaint.

“Starting in 2019, they directed an employee at a U.S. government law enforcement agency (GE-1), whom they believed they had recruited as an asset, to steal confidential information about the criminal prosecution of Company-1 in order to interfere with that prosecution,” the complaint notes. “In actuality, GE-1 was working as a double agent on behalf of the FBI.”

The activity continued up to this month, when Guochun He paid the government law enforcement agent approximately $20,000 in bitcoin as a bonus.

“As alleged, the case involves an effort by PRC intelligence officers to obstruct an ongoing criminal prosecution by making bribes to obtain files from this office and sharing them with a global telecommunications company that is a charged defendant in an ongoing prosecution. We will always act decisively to counteract criminal acts that target our system of justice,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, wrote in the complaint.

Huawei RAN Market Share Wobbles

The U.S. government and many of its allies have banned or severely curtailed the use of Huawei equipment in their domestic telecom networks due to concerns over the vendor’s relationship with the Chinese government. The moves date back to the President Donald Trump who in 2019 signed an executive order that invokes national emergency powers to “deal with the threat posed” by IT and communications technology or services owned or otherwise controlled by foreign adversaries.

That order forbid U.S. telecoms operator from installing any new Huawei equipment, which was seen as crucial for timely 5G network deployments. The government has also since provided funds to help operators remove legacy Huawei equipment from their networks.

These efforts have significantly impacted Huawei’s financial position, with company executives recently forecasting years of financial hardship for the vendor.

Despite the challenges, Huawei remains one of the world’s largest telecom equipment vendors.

Dell’Oro Group recently ranked the vendor alongside Ericsson and Nokia as the largest RAN vendors. The firm noted Huawei was the third-largest RAN vendor outside of China and far-and-away the largest RAN vendor within that country.