The U.S. Department of Commerce has fined the American data storage company Seagate a hefty $300 million USD (about $404 million CAD). The agency claims that Seagate sold over seven million hard drives to Huawei between August 2020 and September 2020.
“Even after Huawei was placed on the Entity List for conduct inimical to our national security, and its competitors had stopped selling to them due to our foreign direct product rule, Seagate continued sending hard disk drives to Huawei,” said Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod.
The Commerce Department blacklisted Huawei in early August 2020, meaning that Seagate was selling its hard drives to the Chinese company after tech export restrictions were already in place.
Over the two months that the hard drives were being sold, Seagate reportedly made around $150 million in profits.
Seagate has reached a settlement with the Commerce Department, agreeing to pay the fine in instalments of $15 million per quarter over five years. In a statement, Seagate CEO Dave Mosley acknowledges its settlement with the American agency, “we believe entering this agreement with BIS and resolving this matter is in the best interest of Seagate, our customers and our shareholders.”
The ongoing technological cold war between the U.S. and China rages on. Aside from Huawei, the Commerce Department lists dozens of other Chinese tech companies on its Entity List.
American companies remain blocked from exporting products and from doing business with Huawei.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce Via: Gizmodo,
