File photo of passersby walking along a footbridge in front of the ZTE building in Nanshan Hi-Tech Industrial Estate in Shenzhen

Passersby walk along a footbridge in front of the ZTE building in Nanshan Hi-Tech Industrial Estate, in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, in this June 9, 2011 file photo. The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into ZTE Corp over the Chinese company’s sale of banned U.S. computer equipment to Iran and its alleged subsequent 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, China-based ZTE, a telecommunications equipment maker, had sold Iran’s largest telecom firm a powerful surveillance system capable of monitoring landline, mobile and Internet communications, according to interviews and contract documents. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files (CHINA – Tags: BUSINESS CRIME LAW SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TELECOMS)