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ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company with a record of systemic corruption, is bidding for major contracts in Australia, including Telstra's 5G mobile network and a transport contract in Western Australia, even after being criminally sanctioned in the United States. An investigation by Fairfax Media has found ZTE not only paid $US12.8 million ($17 million) in bribes to secure one contract in West Africa, but had a designated internal department and multiple layers of management to approve these payments, according to a former insider. Documents show the bribes were meticulously recorded and ran to more than 20 per cent of one...

Susan Rice, a former Obama national security adviser, was left aghast Sunday after President Trump announced he was interceding in a trade dispute between his own Commerce Department and a Chinese telecommunications firm. "Even with all the crazy, this move by the President stands out as super-whack," Rice wrote on Twitter. Even with all the crazy, this move by the President stands out as super-whack. https://t.co/uVLTXNSKyQ

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping are working to give Chinese telecom company ZTE Corp "a way to get back into business, fast."ZTE earlier this month suspended its main operations after the U.S. Commerce Department banned American supplies to its business.As one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers, ZTE relied on U.S. companies such as Qualcomm and Intel for components.

ZTE Corporation, a Chinese firm that sells millions of phones in the United States, has halted "major operating activities" after a US ban against the company went into effect, according to a new public filing. Some of the company's products, which includes smartphones and telecommunications equipment, appeared to no longer be for sale online on Wednesday. It was unclear exactly which of ZTE's operations were impacted. The public filing says the company has enough cash to fulfill its "commercial obligations." No further details were offered. The company did not immediately respond to a request for more information. ZTE said last...

Washington (AFP) - Personnel on US military bases can no longer buy phones and other gear manufactured by Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE, after the Pentagon said the devices pose an "unacceptable" security risk. Concerns have heightened at the Pentagon about consumer electronics being used to snoop on or track service members. "Huawei and ZTE devices may pose an unacceptable risk to (military) personnel, information and mission," Pentagon spokesman Major Dave Eastburn said on Friday. "In light of this information, it was not prudent for the Department's exchanges to continue selling them," he added, referring to the military-run shops on...

FCC chairman Ajit Pai is proposing new rules that would bar telecommunications and broadband companies from using a government subsidy program to buy telecom equipment and services from "any company that poses a national security threat." (please see link, for full article)

China's ZTE pleads guilty, settles US sanctions case for nearly US$900 million NEW YORK/HONG KONG: Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp has agreed to plead guilty and pay nearly US$900 million in a U.S. sanctions case, drawing a line under a damaging scandal that had threatened its cut off its supply chain. While the fine was larger than expected, ZTE, also a major smartphone maker, reported robust underlying earnings for 2016 and was upbeat in estimates for the first quarter. That and the resolution of the case helped its Hong Kong-listed shares surge 6 percent. A five-year investigation found ZTE...

In Wilbur Ross' first public announcement, the former hedge fund manger and current Trump commerce secretary announced that China's telecommunications giant ZTE has agreed to pay a total of $1.2 billion in penalties and plead guilty to violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, selling US technology to Tehran, and obstructing a federal investigation, ending a five-year probe that has raised trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The penalty was among the largest ever in a sanctions case. ZTE was accused that over a six-year-long period, it planned to obtain technology products from the U.S., incorporate them into ZTE equipment and...

Rep. Adam Schiff said Tuesday that the Chinese business deal linked to President Trump’s properties was a violation of the Emoluments Clause. “I certainly view this as a violation of the Emoluments Clause,” Mr. Schiff, California Democrat, said on CNN. Mr. Trump tweeted on Sunday that he wanted federal officials to help get the Chinese phone company ZTE back into business after U.S. penalties threatened to shut the business down, according to The Hill. The Huffington Post reported that it was only 72 hours later that a Chinese company offered a $500 million loan to an Indonesia construction project associated...

“I like you. You and me, we’re going to be best friends.” It is early January, and Eric Schneiderman is sitting in his 25th-floor office above Lower Manhattan, doing his best Donald Trump impression, puckering his lips into a duck face, scrunching up his nose and lowering his voice into something that resembles the president’s outer-borough growl. Schneiderman is recalling his meeting with Trump in 2010. Back then, Schneiderman was running for attorney general of New York, and Trump was still in his pre-birther, reality TV host phase. Trump had donated money to one of Schneiderman’s opponents in the Democratic...

A summons has been issued to President Trump in a lawsuit alleging he is violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The lawsuit — filed by the attorneys general in Washington, D.C., and Maryland — alleges that Trump is violating the clause, which prevents elected officials from receiving gifts or benefits from foreign governments without Congress’s approval, WAMU reported. The lawsuit is filed against Trump in his "official capacity and in his individual capacity," according to the Washington, D.C., radio station. The lawsuit also argues that businesses in Maryland and D.C. have been hurt because groups instead choose to stay...

A week-long stay by the University of Wisconsin football team at a Florida resort owned by President Trump is providing new potential fodder for a lawsuit alleging that the president's private business has put him in violation of the Constitution. During a visit to Miami to play in last month's Orange Bowl, the University of Wisconsin — a public university — put up about 250 players, athletic department staff, senior university officials and board members at the Trump National Doral golf resort. The university's stay may provide new ammunition to the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia, which...

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said President Trump is "running a criminal enterprise" out of the White House. During a segment an MSNBC host said Trump is "constantly vacationing to promote his own properties." "The promotion is extraordinary. There hasn't been a president in my lifetime that's done anything like this," Dean said in response. "In the beginning, the constitutional business about the emoluments clause, which is you're not supposed to take foreign money to influence your policy, it didn't bother me, I thought it was a far-flung argument — I'm not an attorney." But Dean said it...

The fake news media is reporting that General Michael Flynn was working for Russian firms, giving speeches while making thousands of dollars from foreign governments. The truth is the General Flynn was contracted out by a firm to speak about cyber security as a private citizen. Interestingly, all roads lead to Hillary Clinton having violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

A liberal watchdog group says it plans to file a lawsuit against President Trump in federal court on Monday alleging that he is in violation of a little-known constitutional provision that bars him from taking gifts or payments from foreign governments. The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that because Trump-owned buildings take in rent, room rentals and other payments from foreign governments, the president has breached the Emoluments Clause. That clause in the Constitution says that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress,...

A Washington-based nonprofit will file a federal lawsuit against President Trump on Monday, the start of his first week in office. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced Sunday night it is bringing a suit “to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments.” At issue is Trump’s refusal to divest from his business or place his assets into a blind trust, which would separate him entirely from his business empire. He has said his adult sons will run his business while he is in office, that they will not conduct any...

Emoluments Clause is a big deal, and it was written to protect our country from foreign meddling and influence. But, most of Trump's personal economic benefits are not from foreign dignitaries or governments, but from private sources The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary is our best source for defining the words used in the earliest articles of the United States Constitution. If we are going to pursue the original intent of the document written in 1787, it is only logical to pursue the original definitions of the words used in that document. Emolument is a term that appears in the U.S. Constitution’s...