Huawei pleaded not guilty last week to a 13-count indictment that alleged it defrauded U.S. banks by concealing business dealings with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. James Cole, a U.S. lawyer for Huawei, entered the plea on behalf of the company and its U.S. subsidiary, Huawei Device USA Inc, at an arraignment in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office Spokesman John Marzulli. The plea launched the effort to defend Huawei against charges of bank and wire fraud. The company, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and its U.S. unit also are accused of defrauding HSBC and other banks by misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with the suspected front company, Skycom Tech, in Iran.

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn charged Huawei and its CFO Meng Wanzhou with money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Huawei was also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. A separate indictment from Washington state accused Huawei, Skycom and Meng of stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile. The next hearing is scheduled for April 4. Huawei has countersued the U.S. government claiming it overstepped its bounds when it banned the use of Huawei’s equipment by government agencies.

Huawei already strongly denied that it would use its equipment to spy on foreign governments and companies for the Chinese government. Huawei Founder Ren Zhengfei repeatedly said in interviews that he would “definitely” refuse any requests by the Chinese government to hand over user data. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang briefly touched on the subject of spying during his annual press conference. “Let me tell you explicitly that this is not consistent with Chinese law. This is not how China behaves,” Li said. The U.S. government is still pushing other governments to join it in banning the use of Huawei’s equipment in their 5G networks due to security concerns. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned European countries in February that using Huawei’s equipment could hurt their ties with Washington.

British universities with links to Huawei have become concerned that the controversy surrounding the company could negatively affect the image and research of their institutions. Staff from King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Manchester, and Imperial College London have avoided contact with Huawei, the South China Morning Post reports. Oxford University in January became the first British tertiary institution to ban new grants or donations from Huawei based on “public concerns” related to national security. Recently, top U.S. universities such as Princeton and Stanford have rejected research funding from Huawei amid growing pressure from the government. A staff member of King’s College London said: “Some of you have asked are we still allowed to receive funding from Huawei. I have asked for guidance. My guess is: today it’s OK, but tomorrow?”.

Meanwhile, Huawei said it received the world’s first 5G CE certificate for its Mate X model from German third-party independent certification and inspection group TüV Rheinland. Such certification is a requirement of the EU prior to importing and selling products on the European market. Huawei Mate X is the world’s fastest foldable 5G smartphone released by the Chinese company on February 24 ahead of the Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Spain.