Five Charged In European Parliament Huawei Bribery Probe (yahoo.com)
- Reference: 0176766063
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/18/2321249/five-charged-in-european-parliament-huawei-bribery-probe
- Source link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/five-charged-european-parliament-huawei-185546555.html
> The Belgian prosecutor's office said on Tuesday that it has [1]charged five people in connection with a bribery investigation in the European Parliament allegedly linked to China's Huawei. The five were detained last week. Four have now been arrested and charged with active corruption and involvement in a criminal organization, while a fifth faces money laundering charges and has been released conditionally. The prosecutor's officer did not disclose the names of those involved or give information that could identify them.
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> It said new searches had taken place on Monday, this time at European Parliament offices. Huawei said last week it took the allegations seriously. "Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times," it said. The prosecutors have said the alleged corruption took place "very discreetly" since 2021 under the guise of commercial lobbying and involved payments for taking certain political stances or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches.
[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/five-charged-european-parliament-huawei-185546555.html
Sounds familiar (Score:1, Interesting)
"Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption" - someone remind them they're owned by the Chinese communist party, which has no morals and only wants power and money.
Anyway, this sounds familiar. Remember when Trump said absolutely zero Huawei gear allowed in the 5G rollout and Democrat Senators said that's racist and we should partner with Huawei. Someone should maybe audit them, check on their emails and phone records, etc. Maybe that guy who was sleeping with a Chinese spy too and is still in
Re: (Score:2)
This is like a mafia boss saying they have a zero tolerance policy for murder. "I only told them to take care of the guy. I had no idea they would do that ."
Re: Sounds familiar (Score:2)
I meant buy him a soda! Kids these daysâ¦
Re: (Score:1)
No, you misunderstand. Huawei has a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption, meaning that if any employee gets caught taking a kickback they get fired on the spot. If someone outside the company takes a kickback, well, that's hardly Huawei's problem.
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:4, Informative)
> zero Huawei gear allowed in the 5G rollout and Democrat Senators said that's racist and we should partner with Huawei.
You got a source on that because what I can find is that Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrats supported that measure
[1]‘Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump see Huawei the same.’ 5G in Europe aligns America’s top political rivals [defensenews.com]
“Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump are probably not going to have many dinners together but, if you ask them about British purchase of Huawei, they’ll give you the same answer,” Graham said.
Even Trump waffled on this “President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost.”
Who is trying to partner with who again?
[1] https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/02/14/nancy-pelosi-and-donald-trump-see-huawei-the-same-5g-in-europe-aligns-americas-top-political-rivals/
Re: (Score:3)
> Remember when Trump said absolutely zero Huawei gear allowed in the 5G rollout and Democrat Senators said that's racist and we should partner with Huawei.
I don't remember that.
What I remember is a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in February 2018 where heads of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the director of national intelligence spoke out against the use of Huawei and ZTE. The main US telecom operators saying they wouldn't use Huawei 5G. The FCC voting unanimously banning the use government funds to buy Chinese telecom equipment.
Then in August 2018 Trump jumps on board and officially starts banning Huawei when in practice that was already happening.
I do
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Perhaps someone should look into what payments Trump is receiving to spout the Russian narrative. It seems awfully strange how he never criticizes the dictator Putin but rails against a democratically elected Zelinsky who is trying to save his country from Russia's invasion.
Re: Sounds familiar (Score:2)
> someone remind them they're owned by the Chinese communist party
But that's not considered to be corruption in China. Particularly since they don't really hide it. After all, they are Communist. Where the workers own the means of production. The Party is just the ownership structure they prefer.
In the USA, we have the same sort of thing. The largest class of equity owners are pension funds like CALPERS. Arguably just as political as the CCP.
We're sorry! (Score:1)
We're sorry we got caught.
Never could happen in America (Score:2)
You can't bribe our politicians, because it's not considered a crime here.
Alleged (Score:1)
Typical that most (all?) comments here presume guilt, when they're alleged. No semblance of innocent until proven guilty.
Typical American bigotry.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Most Slashdot posters are bigoted against corporations and other large organizations.
Well, most of the ones that post when a corporation is accused of a crime, anyway. (Note that most of the posts assume that Huawei was guilty, and pay no attention to the particular persons accused. [Admittedly, it's difficult to pay attention to anonymous people.])
I am shocked. (Score:2)
Shocked!
Re:I am shocked. (Score:4, Informative)
Every country does it. It's only news because they got caught. Just hours ago The Guardian published this story about the UK: [1]https://www.theguardian.com/so... [theguardian.com]
The EU is fairly resilient to this kind of thing, by international standards. The sort of thing that is normal and tolerated elsewhere won't fly in Brussels.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/19/peer-who-led-government-nhs-review-failed-to-declare-shares-in-health-firms
Re: I am shocked. (Score:4, Informative)
The key here [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act [wikipedia.org] is "Foreign". It's still legal to slip US politicians a few bucks. That is considered protected political speech by the courts.
That law was passed because US politicians didn't want some greedy foreigners siphoning money off that they consider to belong to them.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile Trump pardoned a number of people convicted of corruption and ended the corruption investigation into the NY mayor....