The dust settled, the US federal judge approved the ZTE settlement agreement

According to the Voice of America report, the Dallas Federal District Judge accepted and approved the settlement agreement of ZTE on Wednesday. The judge's decision ended the uncertainty of whether ZTE could continue to do business in the US for a year, and ZTE could continue to operate in the world's largest economy.

The second largest communications equipment company in China has pleaded guilty to three counts of violating export restrictions, covering up criminal facts and obstructing justice.

The US Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, and the Treasury Department said earlier that ZTE admitted to using shadow companies to ship hundreds of millions of dollars worth of hardware and software products originating in the United States to Iranian telecom operators, and to hinder US government judicial investigations. Violation of the International Emergency Economic Power Act.

According to the settlement agreement between ZTE and the US Department of Justice, ZTE must pay a fine of 892 million U.S. dollars. If the plea agreement is violated, an additional 300 million U.S. dollars will be imposed.

ZTE said on the 23rd that the agreement reached between the company and the US Department of Justice has been approved by the Texas District Court. In the future, ZTE will have to pay a fine of 890 million US dollars, but the blacklist of US export restrictions is just around the corner.

Reuters reported that ZTE had announced at the beginning of this month that it had reached an agreement with the US Department of Commerce, the Ministry of Justice, and the Office of Foreign Assets Management of the Ministry of Finance. ZTE agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine. The agreement with the Ministry of Justice will not take effect until it is approved by the Texas District Court. After the agreement comes into effect, the US Department of Commerce will sign a release order and recommend that ZTE be removed from the restricted export list.

At the same time, ZTE will also have to pay a total of 890 million US dollars in fines to the above three departments. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce will impose a fine of 300 million U.S. dollars on ZTE’s suspension of execution, and the latter will fulfill the requirements of the agreement with the Ministry of Commerce during the 7-year suspension period. After the matter, this fine will be waived.

Since the implementation of export restrictions by the US Department of Commerce in March last year, ZTE has been hoping to reach a settlement with the US government as soon as possible, accept punishment, and resume normal operations as soon as possible. However, due to the impact of the US government rotation, ZTE’s settlement time has been postponed.

The United States has long imposed a high-tech export ban on Iran, but the US Department of Commerce survey found that ZTE and the Iranian telecommunications operator signed a contract to provide Iran with products from US technology companies, so the US Department of Commerce restricted companies from shipping products from the United States to ZTE. communication.

On the evening of March 23, ZTE released an annual report to disclose the full year 2016 financial data. In 2016, the Group achieved operating income of 101.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.0%, and the net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of listed companies was 2.36 billion yuan.

According to the announcement, in 2016, ZTE achieved an operating income of RMB 110.23 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.0%, an operating profit of 1.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 263.7%, and a net loss attributable to common shareholders of listed companies of RMB 2.36 billion. Excluding the aforesaid accrued losses, the Group's net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of listed companies was RMB 3.83 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 19.2%.

In 2016, the Group's domestic market achieved operating income of RMB 58.55 billion and the international market realized operating income of RMB 42.68 billion.