The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has dropped charges against two alleged DRC spies accused of obstructing a federal prosecution against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
In an indictment dated October 20 and made public on Monday, the US alleges that two Chinese intelligence officers, Guochun He (known as “Dong He”) and Zheng Wang (known as “Zen Wang”), attempted to bribe a US law enforcement official to obtain what they believed was information about the US criminal case against a ‘global telecommunications company based in China’. The indictment does not name the company, but the details match the company’s known prosecution. Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.
The indictment alleges that he and Wang “tried to obtain confidential information about possible new charges against [Huawei] to obstruct justice.”
The government claims that he and Wang first cultivated their relationship with the unnamed law enforcement officer in February 2017, but that person “then began working as a double agent for the US government.”
The men are charged with trying to obtain confidential witness information and trial evidence in the Huawei case and paid the double agent, referred to as “GE-1”, $61,000 in bitcoin, cash and jewelry for what they believe was inside information about the Justice Department pending prosecution of the China-based company.
At some point in October 2021, the indictment alleges, the undercover agent passed a one-page document to one of the Chinese intelligence officers, classified as “SECRET”, detailing US plans to kill two Huawei executives living in China. to arrest. They paid the undercover agent $41,000 just for that one page.
Far more than an attempt to gather information or intelligence, the actions of the PRC intelligence officers indicted in this case must be credited for what they are: an extraordinary intervention by agents of a foreign government to protect the integrity of the American criminal justice system, compromise a US government employee and hinder the enforcement of US law in favor of a PRC-based commercial enterprise,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen. “The Justice Department will not allow nation-states to interfere in U.S. criminal trials and investigations, and will not tolerate foreign interference in the due process of justice.”
If convicted, He and Wang face up to 60 years and 20 years in prison, respectively.
The case was one of three unlocked Monday that involved alleged Chinese meddling in the U.S. justice system. One in New Jersey accuses three Chinese intelligence agents of conspiring to act in the US as illegal agents on behalf of a foreign government, while another in the Eastern District of New York accuses several people working on behalf of the Chinese government of with a multi-year campaign of threats and intimidation to force a US citizen to return to China,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday.