At least 15 current and former members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are under investigation by police for allegedly taking bribes from Chinese tech giant Huawei. Police have already made several arrests and raided 21 properties across Belgium and Portugal.
The alleged bribery began in 2021 and continued until at least this year, with Belgian prosecutors saying the bribes included money as well as gifts like food, travel, and regular tickets to soccer matches.
This week, prosecutors said they were probing eight MEPs over a pro-Huawei letter defending the company in 2021 and whether the tech giant paid the politicians to write it. While the letter does not mention Huawei by name, it calls on the European Union (EU) to halt potential measures limiting Chinese equipment in infrastructure over spying fears.
Fulvio Martusciello, an Italian, was one of the politicians who signed the letter. Since the probe into Huawei’s activity began, his assistant and former parliamentary adviser have been arrested. Prosecutors allege the person who wrote the letter was offered over $16,000, while those who signed it received just over $1,600 each.
Despite being warned of potential wrongdoing by an NGO, the European Union’s anti-fraud agency OLAF refused to investigate the letter, dismissing the tip due to supposedly “insufficient suspicions.”
The bribery scandal comes after several other MEPs were arrested for taking bribes from the Qatari, Moroccan, and Mauritanian governments to influence EU policy. At least $4.3 million worth of alleged bribes were involved.
Notably, Huawei’s telecommunications technologies have been linked by the U.S. government to Chinese military and spying operations, raising concerns that Huawei equipment used by Western nations could compromise national security.
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