Seagate Technology agreed to a $175 million settlement to resolve a shareholder class-action lawsuit. The deal requires court approval to finalize.
Plaintiffs alleged the company concealed illegal sales to China’s Huawei to artificially inflate profits. Seagate reportedly sold over $1.1 billion worth of hard disk drives to the blacklisted firm. These transactions involved more than 7.4 million units.
Shareholders, including several pension funds, noted the sales occurred after Huawei was blacklisted for national security reasons. This settlement follows a separate $300 million penalty paid to the U.S. Department of Commerce. That fine was issued in 2023 for the same export violations. Seagate continues to deny any wrongdoing in the shareholder case.