The information comes from First Financial News, which reports an investigation into corruption charges. Huawei told CBN that Hongfei is accused of taking bribes from non-state staff. As a result, police are investigating the matter. Hongfei’s role focuses on the consumer business group, a rapidly growing arm that has been propelled by the firm’s smartphone successes. The details of the deals are not clear, but we do know that he’s popular inside the company. Earlier this year, he won the company’s highest management award. However, sources close to Hongfei say his blog and WeChat haven’t been in use since last week. Other sources say he has not been present in the company for some time, and the concerns were known internally. Huawei holds that it has ‘zero tolerance’ for corruption, and has always pushed for ethical business practices. According to his LinkedIn, Hongfei came to Huawei in 2014 after serving as general manager of Nokia from 2003. He became region general manager for Samsung in 2012, before leaving for Huawei.
Not the First Time
To address previous issues, Huawei requires its employees to take a loyalty oath and also rewards those who abide the law. So far, the results aren’t great. Teng joins six company leaders who were accused of distributing internal information to smartphone brand Coolpad and LeEco earlier this year. In 2014, the company accused 116 staff member of corruption, and in 2012, three executives were jailed for taking bribes from lgérie Télécom. They will spend ten years in prison and pay up to $65,000.
