ZTE and US Government Reach Agreement That Includes a $1 Billion Fine

It’s now official – the US has reached an agreement with ZTE to allow the Chinese company to continue doing business as usual.

After the US government banned US companies from supplying components to ZTE, causing the company to temporarily pause operations, they will now pay a hefty $1 billion fine and install new management and compliance teams (picked by the US) to continue on. The US claims that this agreement “imposes the most strict compliance that we’ve ever had on any company, American or foreign.”

To recap, ZTE was first in trouble in the US for illegally selling products to Iran and North Korea. After being caught, fined, and sanctioned for that, they then lied to the US government in the aftermath about a series of bonuses they paid out to employees that were supposed to have been withheld. That lying is what caused this most recent ban that almost put them out of business.

The agreement here is controversial, to say the least. US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are not happy about it, with most agreeing that this move does not help with national security, something the current administration is fond of shouting out.

So yeah, ZTE is back. Oh, and our intelligence agencies still don’t think you should buy their products.

// CBS News