Belgian arrest prosecutors suspicious in Huawei bribery investigation aimed at the EU Parliament

BRUSSELS – Belgian federal prosecutors announced on Thursday the arrests of several people in an investigation of corruption linked to the European Parliament and the Chinese company Huawei, that EU legislators are suspected.

The arrests occurred as an investigation carried out by the newspaper Le Soir and other media said that the lobbyists who worked for the Chinese telecommunications giant were suspected to bribe the current or previous members of the European Parliament to promote the company’s commercial policies in Europe.

The prosecutor confirmed in a statement that it is said that the alleged bribe “benefited Huawei.”

Around 100 Federal Police officers held 21 searches in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia regions, and Portugal. The investigating magistrate in charge of the case also requested that the seals are placed in offices within the EU parliament assigned to two parliamentary assistants who allegedly involved.

Prosecutors said a person was arrested in France.

The suspects would be interrogated about “the alleged participation in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as the falsification and use of falsifications,” prosecutors said. “The crimes were supposedly committed by a criminal organization.”

Huawei public relations representatives in London did not respond to a request for comments by email and could not be contacted by phone.

The European Parliament said only that the Assembly “takes note of the information” and “always cooperates fully with the judicial authorities.”

Huawei, which manufactures cell phones and is the largest network equipment manufacturer for telephone and internet carriers, has been caught in Tensions between the United States and China about technology and trade.

Some European nations have followed the example of Washington and have banned the Huawei team of next -generation mobile networks for accusations that it raises a security risk that could help facilitate Chinese espionage. The company has repeatedly denied this.

The spokesman for the European Commission, Thomas Regnier, said that the EU executive branch had no comments on the investigation, but stressed the security concerns of the commission about the fifth generation mobile phone networks of Huawei and Europe.

“The security of our 5G networks is obviously crucial for our economy,” Regnier told journalists. “Huawei represents materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers.”

EU Member States should “quickly adopt decisions to restrict or exclude Huawei from their 5G networks,” said Regnier. “The rapid lack of action would expose the EU as a whole to a clear risk.”

The prosecutor said that he believes that there was corruption “from 2021 to the present” in several ways, “such as remuneration for taking excessive political positions or gifts, such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches.”

Prosecutors also believe that payments could have disguised as commercial expenses and, in some cases, may have been aimed at third parties. They said they would also seek to “detect any money laundering evidence.”

Police confiscated several documents and objects during searches. The personnel of the Huawei offices in Brussels declined to comment and turn off the lights inside to avoid photographs taken through the window.

This is the second case of corruption aimed at the EU Parliament in less than three years.

In December 2022, the legislature was shaken by a corruption scandal in which Qatar officials They were accused of bribing EU officials to minimize labor rights concerns before the World Cup.

The scandal marked the reputation of the only EU institution composed of officials chosen directly in the 27 member countries. He finished the claim of the assembly to the moral field in his own investigations, as in the accusations of corruption in Hungarian country member.

The legislator of the EU Greens Daniel Freund, who supervised the work of the Ethics Corps of the Assembly during the scandal, called Qatargate, said Thursday that the reputation of the Parliament is again under threat.

“The risk of corruption in Brussels is high because the EU is very influential,” he said. “We need complete research quickly and finally reforms that make Parliament more resistant to corruption.”

According to Foring The Money, a research journalism platform, one of the main suspects in the investigation is Valerio Ottati, 41, a Belgian-Cabal-Cabolero who joined Huawei in 2019.

Before becoming the director of Public Affairs of the EU of Huawei, Ottati was an assistant to two Italian Eurodiputs who were members of a group of the European Parliament that dealt with China’s policy, followed the informed money.

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Petrequin reported from Paris. Associated Press Lorne Cook writers in Brussels and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this report.