Chinese telecom equipment and solution vendors Huawei and ZTE have been banned from tendering for state contracts in Algeria for two years and been fined by a local court after being found guilty of bribing executives at the state owned telecoms network, Algérie Télécom. Local media reports in Algeria named a former executive at the telecoms network, Mohamed Boukhari and a businessman, Chami Madjdoub as being found guilty of receiving illegal payments and money laundering to conceal the sources of those payments. The alleged bribery took place between 2003 and 2006 and the two men were sentenced to 18 years in prison, have had their property confiscated and been fined DZD 5 million (US$64,000) each. The two companies have themselves also been fined DZD3 million (US$38,400 each and banned from tendering with state-owned companies for two years. Three Chinese officials, Dong Tao, Chen Zhibo and Xiao Chuhfa were sentenced in their absence to 10 years in prison and an international arrest warrant has been issued for their extradition back to the country. The two companies denied the allegations and presented themselves as victims of the bribery as well, pushing the blame on their workers cited for the offence. Huawei is one of the biggest telecom equipment and devices vendor in the world, and in Ghana it has a US$150 million government contract for the National Broadband Network installation. It also recently landed another US$150 million Ghana government contract to provide ICT infrastructure and support services for Ghana’s oil industry. Huawei also does good business with all the telecom companies in the country, supplying infrastructural support and supplying devices such as modems, handsets and others customized for the respective operators, and is gearing up to introduce its own branded handsets in Ghana. Meanwhile, Huawei was recently banned in Australia from bidding for National Broadband Network (NBN) project in that country, due to security reasons. Australian Prime Minister had initially ignored the concerns, but he came under heavy Parliamentary pressure and had to ban Huawei eventually, amidst counter arguments from Huawei officials in that country. ZTE is another leading Chinese company, which also provides telecom equipment, devices and network solutions to telecom companies around the works, including Ghana.