Tech company Seagate has been fined $300 million (£241 million) by US officials for allegedly breaking export laws by sending hard drives to China’s Huawei.
After export restrictions were put in place in 2020, Seagate Technology delivered Huawei equipment valued more than $1.1 billion, according to the Department of Commerce.
The fine is the most recent action taken by the US government to halt the export of advanced technology to China.
According to US sources, China’s military may use this equipment.
According to the Commerce Department, Seagate shipped 7.4 million SSDs to Huawei for nearly a year following the rule’s imposition by the previous administration of President Donald Trump.
It continued to do so “even after Huawei was placed on the Entity List for conduct inimical to our national security,” Matthew Axelrod of the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said.
“This settlement is a clarion call about the need for companies to comply rigorously with BIS export rules, as our enforcement team works to ensure both our national security and a level playing field,” Mr Axelrod added.
Huawei’s other two main hard drive suppliers had stopped exports to the Chinese firm in accordance with the new rule, the department said.
The penalty will be paid in instalments of $15m every three months for the next five years, Seagate said.
It comes as the US continues its drive to curb sales of technology, such as advanced computer chips, to China.
As part of its efforts to reduce sales of American goods to Huawei due to worries about national security and foreign policy, the US placed Huawei on a list of companies with trade restrictions in 2019.
The technology, according to Washington, might be used by the Chinese military to assist abuses of human rights or pose other threats to US national security.
The charges have been consistently refuted by the Chinese government.
Many Western nations have recently taken action against Chinese technology businesses due to security concerns.
Equipment installation on networks in the US, Australia, Japan, India, and Canada has been prohibited for firms that specialize in 5G technology, such as Huawei, ZTE, and Hytera.
Meanwhile, the UK government has ordered equipment installed by Huawei to be removed from 5G networks by 2027.
Earlier this week, Chinese surveillance technology giant Hikvision denied that it was illegally disguising its products sold to the US government to enable Chinese espionage.