By our reporter
Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE corp has been banned in the United States of America for seven years, according to an exclusive story by the respected news agency, Reuters.
Reuters has on Monday afternoon reported under the title, “Exclusive: U.S. bans American companies from selling to China’s ZTE” saying the U.S. Department of Commerce has banned ZTE from doing business with American companies “for violating the terms of a sanctions violation case”.
U.S. officials told Reuters that the “Chinese company pleaded guilty last year in federal court in Texas for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to Iran.”
The news agency goes ahead to add, “It paid $890 million in fines and penalties, with an additional penalty of $300 million that could be imposed.”
The Chinese company according to Reuters, agreed “to dismiss four senior employees and discipline 35 others by either reducing their bonuses or reprimanding them.”
Senior Commerce Department officials who spoke to Reuters say the Shenzhen-based ZTE Corp admitted “in March that while it had fired the four senior employees, it had not disciplined or reduced bonuses to the 35 others.”
ZTE is an international telecom company with offices also in Uganda. The company has been banned or fined in several other countries for similar offences, and others including corruption, breaking host countries rules or selling illegal equipment in several countries.
The US ban is going to cripple the financial muscle of ZTE since USA is the largest market for Chinese products.
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