(March 28): Huawei Technologies Co executives would likely have known about — and signed off on — alleged bribes to European Union (EU) lawmakers in 2021, according to Belgian judicial authorities.

A lobbyist for the Chinese telecoms giant is accused of funnelling bribes including offering a €15,000 (RM71,644) fee to a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for a letter promoting the company’s interests. An additional €1,500 was offered to other lawmakers who co-signed it.

While Belgian authorities don’t directly claim bribery was orchestrated from China, they say Chinese managers, including at its EU office, would have approved this transaction or proposed transaction, according to a copy of a March 13 European arrest warrant seen by Bloomberg that targets a parliamentary aide.

“Huawei takes these allegations seriously and will continue to communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation,” according to a spokesperson for the Shenzhen-based company. “Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times.”

After a series of sweeping raids across Belgium and in Portugal, Belgian police last week arrested four individuals on charges of corruption and for operating a criminal organisation. A fifth person, charged with money laundering, had been released on bail. The Belgian prosecutor’s office said it believed political figures had been bribed with money, gifts or travel expenses to sway their political positions. No one has yet been convicted of any wrongdoing in the case.

The arrests have reignited long-held concerns over a culture of systemic corruption in the capital of the EU in the wake of the Qatargate scandal. That corruption case involved alleged bribes running into the hundreds of thousands of euros being dished out to MEPs in exchange for political favours linked to Qatar as well as Morocco. Suspects are awaiting trial.  

Soon after the recent detentions in the Huawei case, Lucia Simeone, an assistant of Italian member of the European Parliament Fulvio Martusciello, was placed under house arrest in Italy at the Belgian police’s request. Centre-right politician Martusciello later announced he would not seek election to president of the Campania region to protect his party “from any possible attack”.

The Belgian arrest warrant, first reported by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, was issued against Simeone. It details accusations that Martusciello received the €15,000 for spearheading a 2021 open letter allegedly financed by Huawei, which Simeone is also alleged to have benefitted from financially. 

The letter was signed by eight EU lawmakers and expressed sentiments favorable to the Chinese telecom giant — such as warning against the politicisation of 5G, at a time in which the US government had been heavily lobbying European watchdogs to remain wary of Huawei. 

Martusciello told Bloomberg that he “never received anything: neither tickets nor trips to China nor devices”. He said he’d only once met Huawei’s lobbyist and never accepted his invites to various events.   

A lawyer representing the Huawei lobbyist under investigation declined to comment. 

Simeone’s lawyer, Antimo Giaccio, said that her client denied any wrongdoing, and was never involved in any political activity, only working for Martusciello as his personal assistant and secretary.

The European Commission said it’s issued an instruction to cabinets of its commissioners and other officials in the EU’s executive arm to immediately suspend contacts and meetings with Huawei until further notice.

The European Parliament didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.

Huawei’s relationship with European nations has long faced scrutiny — largely emanating from Washington, with consecutive administrations fearing that relying on the Chinese company for critical infrastructure is a security risk. 

The EU pushed states years ago to restrict suppliers that are considered high risk, including Chinese suppliers like Huawei. But fewer than half of the 27 EU member countries had taken legal measures to limit or entirely ban Huawei from their wireless networks, Euronews reported last year. 

Some countries initially made commitments to replace some network equipment but haven’t yet delivered on the promises. Germany, for example, pushed back by a year, to the end of 2026, a deadline to strip critical Huawei and ZTE components from its 5G core mobile networks.

Huawei has consistently denied that its products pose a security risk.

Uploaded by Felyx Teoh