A US federal judge has ordered Chinese telecommunications firm Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd. to pay a $50 million criminal fine after the company admitted to conspiring to steal proprietary digital radio technology from Motorola Solutions.
The scheme involved recruiting Motorola engineers and using stolen source code to accelerate the development of competing products.
The fine was announced by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and follows Hytera’s guilty plea in 2025 to a federal charge of conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
According to court filings, the misconduct dates back to 2006, when Hytera began recruiting and hiring engineers who previously worked for Motorola Solutions. Prosecutors say the employees were directed to take confidential internal materials, including proprietary documents and source code, related to Motorola’s digital mobile radio (DMR) technology. This technology, developed through years of research and engineering investment, forms the foundation of professional two-way radio systems widely used by public safety agencies, transportation operators, and industrial organizations.
Motorola Solutions, headquartered in Illinois, is a major provider of mission-critical communications systems, including radio networks used by police, fire departments, and emergency responders around the world. The company has spent decades developing its digital radio platform, which supports secure and reliable communications in environments where failure could have serious safety implications.
Prosecutors say Hytera leveraged the stolen information to build its own competing digital radio products at a fraction of Motorola’s development cost. These products were then sold globally, allowing Hytera to compete directly with Motorola in the professional radio market for more than a decade, from 2006 through 2020.
In addition to the $50 million criminal fine, Judge Tharp sentenced Hytera to five years of probation. During that period, the company must maintain a robust corporate compliance program and provide annual reports to the US government detailing its efforts to prevent similar misconduct.
The court also ordered Hytera to pay approximately $214 million in restitution to Motorola Solutions. However, the judge ruled that the restitution amount will be offset by payments Hytera has already made as part of a separate civil judgment tied to the same conduct.
In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US banned the sale of Hytera products in the country, alongside those from Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, and Dahua.
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