New documents show Huawei role in shipping prohibited US gear to Iran – Strategy – Hardware – Networking – Security – Telco/ISP

China’s Huawei Systems, which for many years has denied violating American trade sanctions on Iran, manufactured internal firm data in 2010 that present it was immediately included in sending prohibited US pc tools to Iran’s major cellular-mobile phone operator.

Two Huawei packing lists, dated December 2010, included pc tools designed by Hewlett-Packard Co and destined for the Iranian provider, internal Huawei paperwork reviewed by Reuters present.

Another Huawei doc, dated two months later on, said: “Currently the tools is shipped to Tehran, and ready for the custom clearance.”

The packing lists and other internal paperwork, reported below for the 1st time, offer the strongest documentary evidence to day of Huawei’s involvement in alleged trade sanctions violations. They could bolster Washington’s multifaceted campaign to look at the electrical power of Huawei, the world’s primary telecommunications-tools maker.

The United States is striving to persuade allies to stay clear of using Huawei tools in their upcoming-generation cellular telecommunications units, recognised as 5G. Individually, US authorities are battling Huawei on a authorized front.

The freshly attained paperwork contain a multi-million dollar telecommunications project in Iran that figures prominently in an ongoing criminal circumstance Washington has introduced from the Chinese firm and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou. The daughter of Huawei’s founder, Meng has been preventing extradition from Canada to the United States since her arrest in Vancouver in December 2018. Huawei and Meng have denied the expenses, which contain lender fraud, wire fraud and other allegations.

The paperwork, which aren’t cited in the criminal circumstance, offer new facts about Huawei’s part in giving an Iranian telecom provider with various pc servers, switches and other tools designed by HP, as well as software package designed by other American firms at the time, which includes Microsoft Corp, Symantec Corp and Novell Inc.

A US indictment alleges that Huawei and Meng participated in a fraudulent scheme to obtain prohibited US goods and know-how for Huawei’s Iran-dependent business, and transfer funds out of Iran by deceiving Western financial institutions. The indictment accuses Huawei and Meng of surreptitiously using an “unofficial subsidiary” in Iran termed Skycom Tech Co Ltd to obtain the prohibited goods.

“Huawei could therefore try to assert ignorance with regard to any unlawful act dedicated by Skycom on behalf of Huawei, which includes violations of” US sanctions legal guidelines, the indictment states. Skycom, which Huawei has described as a community business husband or wife in Iran, is named as a defendant. Records in Hong Kong, where Skycom was registered, present the agency was liquidated in June 2017.

The freshly attained data reviewed by Reuters present that a different Chinese firm, Panda Global Information and facts Know-how Co, which isn’t named in the US indictment, was also included in acquiring hardware and software package for the Iranian project. Panda Global has longstanding ties to Huawei and is controlled by a Chinese state-owned firm.

“Due to ongoing authorized proceedings, it is not correct for Huawei to remark at this time,” a Huawei spokesman claimed in response to issues about the freshly attained paperwork. “Huawei is dedicated to comply with all applicable legal guidelines and regulations in the international locations and locations where we operate, which includes all export handle and sanction legal guidelines and regulations of the UN, US, and EU.”

China’s overseas ministry claimed that “the United States, devoid of presenting any evidence, has been about-generalizing the notion of nationwide safety and abusing its state electrical power to unreasonably suppress particular Chinese companies.” It referred issues about the Huawei paperwork to the firm.

Packing lists

The US indictment cites articles by Reuters in 2012 and 2013 which reported that Skycom experienced made available in late 2010 to market at the very least 1.3 million euros worth of embargoed HP pc tools to Cellular Telecommunication Co of Iran. The Iranian cellular company is variously recognised as MCI and MCCI.

MCI’s mother or father firm is Telecommunication Co of Iran. At the time, TCI was controlled by a consortium whose major stakeholder was a firm controlled by the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Another stakeholder was Setad, an firm controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The earlier Reuters stories ended up dependent on a partial selling price checklist included in a Huawei and Skycom proposal in Oct 2010 to increase MCI’s consumer billing process. Huawei experienced furnished MCI’s original billing process, which was not holding rate with MCI’s escalating consumer base. The selling price checklist was marked with Huawei’s logo and stamped “SKYCOM IRAN Business.”

At the time, Huawei claimed it finally by no means shipped the HP goods to Iran. A Huawei spokesman instructed Reuters in 2012 that the selling price checklist was a “bidding document” submitted by Skycom and that “Huawei has by no means furnished the tools … nor finished so by means of Skycom.”

But the freshly attained paperwork – additional than one hundred supplemental web pages linked to the project – present that Huawei was included in sending at the very least some of that US tools to Iran. The paperwork are variously published in English, Chinese and Farsi.

One particular internal doc showed that Huawei was deeply included in the MCI growth project. It states that on September twenty five, 2010, MCI questioned Huawei to get started the project. “The tools deal was signed,” the doc states, devoid of giving facts.

The paperwork also include a “Bill of Amount Quotation,” a 2010 proposal that detailed the tools desired for the project. It was manufactured by Huawei and involves HP gear, as well as server software package designed then by Microsoft, Symantec and Novell.

The paperwork also include two packing lists that ended up dated December 7 and December 13, 2010, with Huawei’s logo at the leading. The name Huawei also appears in the lists’ metadata – pc info about the documents’ generation.

The packing lists, which include some prohibited HP tools, furnished in depth facts of 340 shipping situations, these types of as weights and dimensions, with final places in the key Iranian metropolitan areas of Tehran, Shiraz and Mashhad.

The packing lists include various HP servers, switches and disk arrays, as well as Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2000 software package.

Sale ‘prohibited’

Reuters did not have accessibility to other transport data, these types of as customs and supply types, specifying which tools arrived at MCI. But a later on Huawei doc said that tools for the telecom growth project experienced arrived in Iran.

MCI did not reply to a ask for for remark.

A spokesman for Hewlett Packard Company claimed: “Our deal terms prohibited the sale of these goods to Iran, and essential that our companions comply with all applicable export legal guidelines and regulations. This remains legitimate currently.”

Microsoft did not respond to issues about the legality of shipping its server software package to Iran. Symantec, now termed NortonLifeLock Inc, declined to remark. The present owner of the Novell software package didn’t reply to a ask for for remark.

Some of the freshly attained paperwork advise Huawei could have made use of Panda Global to purchase hardware and software package.

The data include a signed tools deal among MCI and Panda Global that included additional than $10 million worth of tools for the billing process project, despite the fact that it does not specify all of the gear. According to the deal, which references an bill from September 2010, MCI was to spend Panda Global by means of China Construction Bank’s branch in the city of Shenzhen – the site of Huawei’s headquarters.

Panda Global is controlled by China Electronics Corp, a Chinese state-owned tech firm. According to Panda International’s internet site, Panda has a “long and deep historical past with Huawei” that started in 2007.

Folks common with the make any difference instructed Reuters that Huawei on a regular basis made use of Panda Global to ship tools to prospects in Iran and Syria.

Panda Global, China Electronics and China Construction Bank did not reply to requests for remark.

In 2014, the US Department of Commerce additional Panda Global to its “Entity List” – a roster of firms efficiently banned from executing business with US companies. The division claimed Panda Global could have tried “to export goods to places sanctioned by the United States.”

The paperwork reviewed by Reuters present that Huawei was included in the tools deal among Panda Global and MCI.

A letter from MCI to Huawei with a handwritten day in July 2011 reported a collection of challenges with the set up of HP racks and other tools in Shiraz linked to the Panda Global deal.

Two many years later on, a joint letter signed by officials from Huawei and MCI in Oct 2013 confirmed that “problems and shortcomings” underneath the tools deal “were settled by Huawei.”