Huawei looks to be following in the footsteps of ZTE, another Chinese smartphone manufacturer, as an investigation over sanctions violations has cropped up.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Huawei is currently under a criminal investigation over violated sanctions connected to Iran from the Justice Department. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t go into any further detail. It is unknown at this point which sanctions might have been violated, or any specifics pertaining to the investigation.
“The Justice Department is investigating whether Huawei Technologies Co. violated U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to people familiar with the matter—opening a new avenue of scrutiny amid wider national-security concerns over the Chinese cellular-electronics giant.”
Huawei has run into several different road blocks in its goal to launch a major presence in the United States wireless market. Earlier this year, AT&T, along with every other major wireless carrier, canceled plans to launch the flagship Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone. It didn’t take long before Best Buy opted out of selling any Huawei devices, too.
And now the company is facing a criminal investigation that may have even worse results. We may be able to look at ZTE’s situation, which was recently hit with a ban on being sold any goods from U.S. companies like Qualcomm, to guess what may happen with Huawei depending on the results of the investigation.
[via The Wall Street Journal]