Huawei is on the heart of a contemporary scandal in Europe, following reviews that lobbyists representing the Chinese tech titan bribed members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to curry favor with lawmakers.
After being solid out of the U.S. market over fears that its telecommunications gear may very well be infiltrated by the Chinese authorities for nefarious functions, it appears Huawei feared comparable actions in Europe. Several international locations within the bloc are at the moment phasing out Huawei gear (although the tempo of motion has been criticized).
According to a report by Follow the Money (FTM), an investigative information outfit primarily based within the Netherlands, Belgian police this morning raided 21 addresses throughout Belgium and Portugal as a part of an ongoing corruption investigation. The addresses included Huawei’s European workplaces and houses related to lobbyists linked to the corporate.
Codenamed “Generation,” FTM reviews that the probe has been happening for greater than two years, and is concentrated on allegations that Huawei lobbyists paid MEPs in trade for gaining their help in Parliament. Some 15 present and former MEPs are on investigators’ radar, in keeping with the report, with “suspicions of bribery, forgery, cash laundering and felony organisation” on the heart.
