Huawei offices in Belgium get searched amid a corruption probe in EU

Belgian police searched the Huawei headquarters in Brussels. Authorities raided 20 additional locations in the Belgian provinces of Flanders and Wallonia, as well as in Portugal, resulting in several arrests, according to prosecutors.

A Belgian Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson stated that there is “an ongoing investigation into preliminary charges of active corruption, forgery of documents, and money laundering at the European Parliament.” The “alleged bribery” is thought to have benefited the tech company Huawei.

European Parliament in Strasbourg, France

The investigation concerns lobbyists for the Chinese tech giant bribing members of the European Parliament to influence EU decision-making that is said to have benefited Huawei. During the operation, a judge has requested that the European Parliament offices of two assistants involved in the case be sealed.

The information about the probe was disclosed by the investigative website Follow the Money, along with two Belgian newspapers – Le Soir and Knack. The reports identified one of the primary suspects in the case as 41-year-old Valerio Ottati, Huawei Director of EU Public Affairs, and a former assistant to two Italian MEPs who were both part of a European Parliament group focused on China policy.

Huawei office in Brussels, Belgium | Image source: Vandebroek Interieur

An anonymous source informed Follow The Money that Ottati lacked any expertise in technology; he was merely appointed by Huawei due to his connections.

Meanwhile, the European Commission declined to comment on the investigation. Its spokesperson, Thomas Regnier, emphasized the EU’s primary executive body’s security concerns regarding Huawei and Europe’s 5G telecom networks.

“Huawei represents materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers,” and EU members should “adopt decisions to restrict or to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks”.

Source 1 (in French) • Source 2 | Via

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