Huawei’s criminal trial opened in Brooklyn with prosecutors portraying the Chinese telecommunications company as a criminal enterprise that stole American technology and concealed its Iran business to circumvent U.S. sanctions. The case, which began with a 2018 indictment and expanded to include racketeering allegations, is expected to last about three months. Prosecutors allege Huawei conspired to steal trade secrets from five U.S. companies, including Cisco Systems and T-Mobile, while misrepresenting its ties to Skycom to move millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system. The defense said prosecutors were cherry-picking isolated actions by employees and portraying routine global business practices as criminal conduct. The case is linked to Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, whose 2018 detention in Canada triggered a diplomatic crisis; her charges were dismissed in 2022 under a deferred prosecution agreement, and she is not a defendant at trial.