Huawei Offered T-Mobile Workers Bonuses for Trade Secrets - DOJ

[Lucian Armasu]

The U.S. DOJ accused Huawei of stealing T-Mobile's trade secrets to gain an unfair competitive advantage. A U.S. Grand Jury also indicted he company of wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Huawei Offered T-Mobile Workers Bonuses for Trade Secrets - DOJ : Read more

 

[velocityg4]

According to the FBI, Huawei has been trying to get ahead by offering employees of various companies around the world bonuses based on the value of information they stole. The employees would then send this information to Huawei via encrypted email.

Huawei faces a fine of up to $500,000 for wire fraud and obstruction of justice and up to $5 million for conspiracy and attempt to commit trade secret theft, if found guilty in the court of law.

That's all they would get for that. That's a bargain compared to how much it would cost to research those techs or purchase the rights.

 

[Steve Sexton]

According to the FBI, Hillary is clean.

 

[King_V]

According to the FBI, Hillary is clean.

So you're basically saying that the FBI is dead-on accurate.

I mean, I know you were trolling... but still.

 

[Godloki]

@velocityg4 Right... That seems like a drop in the bucket for how valuable some of that information may have been.

 

[s1mon7]

5 million "if found guilty" is pocket money for a company like Huawei. If the secrets are really worth such small amounts, this doesn't even seem worth covering, yet it blew up so hard lately. It's getting mixed up with the arrest and Iran sanctions though, which is another thing.

 

[mrmez]

As a % of their net worth, that's the equivalent to fining the average American $500.

Maybe we need to start basing fines of a % of worth or earnings?

A $5 million fine for Huawei is like... #WorthIt

 

[Co BIY]

If these were the only issues they should probably say "Sorry" with their fingers crossed behind their back and pull out the checkbook but ...

It's probably more like the tip of an iceberg. And admitting anything would set them up for civil lawsuits by the damaged parties.

Mr. Mez. - Basing the fines on the total value of the company encourages the government to target large successful companies based on their value rather than the violations they have committed. See multiple EU prosecutions/ US State Attorney General actions that that look closer to extortion than justice.

Agree though that the punishment should at least track with the value of the violation to the company and the damaged caused by the theft to victims.

I'm not sure the legal system is an effective means to deal with companies operating out of a lawless country.