LONDON (Reuters) - The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into Chinese telecoms gear maker ZTE Corp's <0763.HK> <000063.SZ> sale of banned U.S. computer equipment to Iran and its alleged attempts to cover it up and obstruct a Department of Commerce probe, the Smoking Gun website reported.

The federal investigations stem from a Reuters report in March that Shenzhen-based ZTE sold Iran's largest telecoms firm a powerful surveillance system capable of monitoring landline, mobile and Internet communications.

Kevin Cheng
Investment Director at Fortune Venture Capital

Location
China
Industry
Venture Capital & Private Equity

Current Investment Director at Fortune Venture Capital
Past Director of Strategic Analysis at Huawei
Marketing Director at Huawei
Marketing Director at ZTE Corporation
Operation Director at ZTE Corporation
Director at ZTE Corporation
Marketing Manager at ZTE Corporation
Senior Software Engineer at ZTE Corporation

Kevin Cheng's Summary
1.12 years of working experience in Telecom industry and worked worldwide in Latin America,Asia Pacific,Europe and Middle East.

2.I'm now working for Huawei Software,one of product line focusing on the telecom Value-added service and internet applications as an Analyst. I'm strong in market intelligence,competitive intelligence,strategic analysis,business model analysis. Besides traditional telecom VAS such as SDP, RBT,SMS,MMS,IPTV,MTV,BSS,my research also cover mobile internet,web 2.0,blog,SNS,RSS,Wiki,SaaS,Cloud Computing,etc.

3.Ever provided consultation services for investment management,PE and Fund like
acqcap, Credit Suisse Equity Research, Maverick Capital, BCG, Invesco Aim, Alyasny Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd, Bain Capital Asia ,JAT Capital Management, Neeraj Chandra at Tiger Global, Ardsley Partner,etc.

Telecommunications
Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp. plans to focus on organic growth in the near term and isn't in acquisition talks. ZTE isn't interested in acquiring the handset business of U.S.-based Motorola Inc. (MOT) and also isn't keen on purchasing Nortel Networks Corp.'s (NT) technology business. Both companies have been struggling with tepid demand and fierce price cuts by rival vendors in China, and are in the midst of a restructuring program. ZTE's growth strategy is markedly different from its rival Huawei Technologies Co., which has been looking at overseas assets to grow. Late last year, privately held Huawei attempted to acquire Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com Corp. (COMS) in a US$2.2 billion deal along with Bain Capital Partners LLC. That deal failed to pass a U.S. government vetting process for foreign investment in sensitive industries, because 3Com had contracts to provide security software to the U.S. government. Huawei is considering the sale of a stake in its mobile devices division to a foreign investor.

In December, a Bain-run fund in which a Romney family blind trust has holdings purchased the video surveillance division of a Chinese company that claims to be the largest supplier to the government’s Safe Cities program, a highly advanced monitoring system that allows the authorities to watch over university campuses, hospitals, mosques and movie theaters from centralized command posts.

The Bain-owned company, Uniview Technologies, produces what it calls “infrared antiriot” cameras and software that enable police officials in different jurisdictions to share images in real time through the Internet. Previous projects have included an emergency command center in Tibet that “provides a solid foundation for the maintenance of social stability and the protection of people’s peaceful life,” according to Uniview’s Web site.

Such surveillance systems are often used to combat crime and the manufacturer has no control over whether they are used for other purposes. But human rights advocates say in China they are also used to intimidate and monitor political and religious dissidents. “There are video cameras all over our monastery, and their only purpose is to make us feel fear,” said Loksag, a Tibetan Buddhist monk in Gansu Province. He said the cameras helped the authorities identify and detain nearly 200 monks who participated in a protest at his monastery in 2008.

Mr. Romney has had no role in Bain’s operations since 1999 and had no say over the investment in China. But the fortunes of Bain and Mr. Romney are still closely tied.

He said the cameras helped the authorities identify and detain nearly 200 monks who participated in a protest at his monastery in 2008.

Mr. Romney has had no role in Bain’s operations since 1999 and had no say over the investment in China. But the fortunes of Bain and Mr. Romney are still closely tied.

The financial disclosure forms Mr. Romney filed last August show that a blind trust in the name of his wife, Ann Romney, held a relatively small stake of between $100,000 and $250,000 in the Bain Capital Asia fund that purchased Uniview.

In a statement, R. Bradford Malt, who manages the Romneys’ trusts, noted that he had put trust assets into the fund before it bought Uniview. He said that the Romneys had no role in guiding their investments. He also said he had no control over the Asian fund’s choice of investments.

R. Bradford Malt is best known in legal circles as the chairman of Boston’s largest law firm, Ropes & Gray LLP. But last week, Malt burst into the national spotlight as the trustee responsible for overseeing Mitt Romney’s vast fortune and making controversial decisions to invest some of it in a Swiss bank account and funds based in exotic locales like the Cayman Islands.

Originally posted by JBA2848
reply to post by xuenchen

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articles.boston.com...

R. Bradford Malt is best known in legal circles as the chairman of Boston’s largest law firm, Ropes & Gray LLP. But last week, Malt burst into the national spotlight as the trustee responsible for overseeing Mitt Romney’s vast fortune and making controversial decisions to invest some of it in a Swiss bank account and funds based in exotic locales like the Cayman Islands.

Yes Romney hired a crook to create a buffer so Romney can break the intent of the law and still stay legal.