A U.S. judge ordered ZTE Corp. to undergo an additional two years of court-appointed monitoring for violating its probation over a breach of sanctions against Iran.
The Commerce Department earlier this year reached a separate deal with the Chinese telecommunications firm to lift a previously imposed sales ban on the company. Along with a monetary fine and requirement to overhaul its executive team, ZTE also agreed to 10 years of oversight by a monitor who will report to the agency.
With the extension imposed this week, ZTE will be subject to two different outside monitors until 2022 at the earliest. The judge also ruled that the monitor put in place after the sanctions violation must have access to the same “documents, information, facilities, and personnel” as the one imposed by Commerce in the June settlement, ZTE said in a Thursday filing with the Hong Kong stock market.
ZTE is one of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment and smartphone providers, but U.S. agencies and lawmakers have argued that the firm is effectively a conduit for Chinese espionage in the U.S.
The Pentagon prohibited the sale of products from ZTE and fellow Chinese-telecom provider Huawei on military bases, and the Federal Communications Commission is seeking to bar companies that use products made by either firm from accessing a popular service fund intended to help rural carriers.
Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida were highly critical of the administration’s decision to lift the sales ban on ZTE – a move that came at the behest of President Trump, who tweeted at the time that he was working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to get the firm back in business.
Lawmakers tried to attach a measure to overturn the ban to a defense policy bill, but the provision was dropped in negotiations between the House and Senate on compromise language.
