By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies asked a U.S. judge to dismiss much of a federal indictment accusing the Chinese telecommunications company of trying to steal technology secrets from U.S. rivals and misleading banks about its business in Iran.
In a Friday night filing in federal court in Brooklyn, Huawei said there was no proof of a conspiracy, calling the charge part of the Department of Justice's "ill-founded" China Initiative to prosecute people and companies with ties to China.
Huawei said several charges concerned activities outside the United States, while the bank fraud counts rested on a "right to control" theory of fraud that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last year in an unrelated case.
"The government has approached Huawei as a prosecutorial target in search of a crime," said Huawei, which has pleaded not guilty. A trial is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026.
Based in Shenzhen, Huawei operates in more than 170 countries and has about 207,000 employees.
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn declined to comment on Monday (NASDAQ:MNDY). Huawei's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Begun in 2018, the case led to the detention in Canada of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, whose father founded the company. Charges against her were dismissed in 2022.
The China Initiative began in 2018 during President-elect Donald Trump's first administration, and was intended to address Beijing's alleged theft of intellectual property.
Four years later, the Biden administration ended the program after critics said it amounted to racial profiling and created a climate of fear that chilled scientific research.
The U.S. government has restricted Huawei's access to American technology since 2019, citing national security concerns. Huawei denies it is a threat.
The case is U.S. v. Huawei Technologies Co et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 18-cr-00457.