ZTE chairman apologizes after agreeing to pay $1 billion fine to US
He also vows to hold accountable the employees responsible for the US embargo violation.
ZTE Chairman Yin Yimin reportedly apologized to the company's staff and customers in a memo on Friday.
ZTE's chairman apologized Friday to staff and customers for the company's past behavior after the Chinese telecom giant struck a deal this week to pay a $1 billion penalty to the US.
The deal, crafted in order to lift a crippling US ban on the company, requires ZTE to overhaul its management and allow a US-chosen compliance team to be installed for 10 years.
Chairman Yin Yimin wrote a memo to staff Friday saying that ZTE will return to business as soon as possible and will hold accountable those responsible for the violation that led to the ban, a company source told Reuters.
"This issue reflects problems that exist with our firm's compliance culture and at management level," he wrote, according to Reuters' source.
Yin blamed the incident on a few company leaders and employees, noting that ZTE paid a "disastrous price" for a ban that resulted in "huge losses for the company."
ZTE didn't immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
The US ban came in May, after the government determined that ZTE violated terms of its 2017 settlement through its failure to fire employees who illegally shipped US equipment to Iran and North Korea.
With the ban in place, ZTE shut down most of its operations until US President Donald Trump tweeted that he wanted the Commerce Department to work on getting the ban lifted.