中興承認違反美國製裁支付鉅額罰金

ZTE has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges of violating US sanctions on North Korea and Iran and to pay up to $1.2bn in fines, the largest sanctions-busting penalty levied against a Chinese company by Washington.

中興(ZTE)同意承認違反美國對朝鮮和伊朗制裁的刑事指控，將支付最高12億美元的罰金，這是美國針對中國公司違反美國製裁措施開出的最大一筆罰單。

The Chinese telecoms group also admitted to obstructing a federal investigation as part of a probe announced yesterday after more than a year of talks with the US government. Those talks accelerated after US officials seized the laptop of a ZTE lawyer as her husband tried to leave the US, resulting in a trove of documents that laid bare what officials called a brazen conspiracy to get around US sanctions.

在昨日宣佈的一項調查中，這家中國電信集團還承認曾阻礙聯邦調查，在雙方達成和解之前，中興與美國政府進行了一年多的談判。美國官員在一名中興律師的丈夫試圖離開美國時沒收了這名律師的電腦，獲取了一批文件，官員們稱，這些文件暴露了繞過美國製裁的無恥陰謀。這之後雙方談判加快。

The investigation was begun under the Obama administration, which placed the company on a list of banned entities in March 2016, in effect prohibiting US suppliers from doing business with the world’s fourth-largest telecoms equipment supplier. But the administration of Donald Trump quickly seized on the case as an example of how it planned to get tough on China and others it accused of cheating on trade.

調查是在奧巴馬執政時開始的，2016年3月，美國政府將中興列入被禁實體清單，實際上禁止美國供應商與這家全球第四大電信設備供應商開展業務。但唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)政府迅速將此案當作典型，以表明其計劃對美國指控開展欺詐貿易的中國和其他國家強硬起來。

“We are putting the world on notice: the games are over,” said billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who became Mr Trump’s commerce secretary.

億萬富翁投資者、擔任特朗普商務部長的威爾伯?羅斯(Wilbur Ross)表示：“我們正提請全世界注意：這種遊戲結束了。”

ZTE warned in a filing last month that it faced a hefty fine in the US. The terms of the deal, which must be approved by a court, call for immediate fines of $892m and a further $300m in penalties to be suspended for seven years as ZTE’s compliance with the deal is monitored.

上月，中興在一份申報文件中警告稱，該公司在美國面臨鉅額罰金。和解協議要求中興立即支付8.92億美元罰金，還有3億美元暫緩7年支付，期間中興遵守協議的情況將受到監督，該協議尚待法院批准

“ZTE acknowledges the mistakes it made, takes responsibility for them, and remains committed to positive change in the company,” Zhao Xianming, the company’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

中興董事長兼首席執行官趙先明在一份聲明中表示：“中興通訊承認違反美國出口管制相關法律法規，願意承擔相應的責任。公司將繼續積極致力於變革。”

Mr Zhao was appointed last April as part of shake-up of ZTE’s management in the wake of the US charges. Under his leadership, the company said it had created a new compliance committee and appointed a US lawyer to monitor its compliance with global export controls.

去年4月，在美國提出指控後，作爲中興管理層調整的一部分，趙先明臨危受命。中興表示，在他的領導下，該公司組建了新的合規委員會，並任命了一位美國律師監督該公司對全球出口管制的遵守。

But according to US officials those moves came only after investigators, who spent five years looking into the company’s dealings with Iran and North Korea, seized the company lawyer’s laptop following a tip from a ZTE insider.

但據美國官員稱，這些舉措是在調查人員得到中興內部人員密報沒收該公司律師筆記本電腦後纔出現的，調查人員花費了5年時間，調查中興與伊朗和朝鮮的業務往來。

Files on the computer, officials said, documented an “egregious” conspiracy that saw the ZTE ship tens of millions of dollars in mobile phones and mobile phone chips containing restricted US technology to North Korea and similar cellular network equipment to Iran.

美國官員們表示，這臺電腦上的文件記錄了一個“令人震驚”的陰謀，中興將數千萬美元的包含受限美國技術的手機和手機芯片銷往朝鮮，並將類似的蜂窩網絡設備銷往伊朗。

To do so, ZTE used “isolation companies” to hide the use of restricted US-made components and left any mention of those parts off customs declaration forms. At one point, US officials said, ZTE had 13 employees assigned to a unit ordered to “sanitise” internal communications to remove any potentially incriminating evidence. It also restarted shipments to Iran while it was being probed and caused its own lawyers to lie unwittingly to US officials by denying any wrongdoing.

爲了這麼做，中興利用“殼公司”隱藏美國生產的受限零配件的使用，並且未在報關時提及這些零配件。美國官員表示，中興曾委派13名員工加入一個部門，命令他們“淨化”內部通信，以去除所有可能暴露罪行的證據。中興還在接受調查期間再度向伊朗輸送產品，並導致自己的律師否認該公司存在任何不當行爲，無意中對美國官員撒了謊。