Huawei Technologies Co Ltd lawyer James Cole’s prior work at the US Department of Justice created conflicts of interest that could disqualify him from defending the Chinese company in a case of alleged bank fraud and sanctions violations, US prosecutors said in a filing on Friday, reported Reuters.
Last week, prosecutors filed a motion to disqualify Cole, who served as deputy attorney general, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, between 2011 and 2015.
“There is a ‘substantial risk’ that Cole could use ‘confidential factual information’ obtained while serving as DAG to ‘materially advance’ Huawei’s current defense strategy,” the prosecutors said, according to a redacted copy of the US motion filed on Friday in US District Court in Brooklyn, New York.