US criminal case against Chinese Huawei to go to trial in 2026

The US Justice Department's long-running criminal case against China's Huawei, accusing it of misleading banks about its business dealings in Iran, is headed for trial in January 2026.

At a case status conference Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Solomon told U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly, “Decisional deliberations have reached an impasse. We believe it would be prudent to set a ruling date.”

The judge said he believed a “good tentative date” for the trial to begin would be early January 2026.

The case, which has long strained relations between the United States and China, began with an indictment in 2018 that led to the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Hawaii, in Vancouver, Canada, on a US warrant.

As part of the 2021 settlement, charges against Meng, the daughter of the company's founder, were dropped.

A broader case against Huawei — which has pleaded not guilty — is pending.

Prosecutors expect the trial to last four to six months, Solomon said.

Huawei's lawyer, Douglas Axel, said the company is pending a request to separate the bank fraud charges from the trade secret theft charges. But the government opposed the split and suggested the charges were related.

In 2018, Hawaii was charged with bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC and other banks about its business dealings in Iran, which is under US sanctions.

In 2020, the Justice Department added additional charges to the case, including that Huawei conspired to steal trade secrets from six U.S. technology companies and helped Iran monitor protesters during anti-government protests in 2009.

Meng reached a plea deal with US prosecutors in September 2021 in which he admitted making false statements about Huawei's business in Iran.

After an unusual virtual hearing, he was allowed to fly out of Canada to China. Shortly thereafter, China released two Canadians held there, and two American brothers who had been barred from leaving China were allowed to return home.

Since 2019, the United States has banned Huawei's access to North American technology, accusing the company of engaging in activities contrary to the country's national security, which Huawei has denied.