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The Justice Department yesterday announced criminal charges against Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest communications equipment manufacturer, and one of its top executives — a move likely to intensify trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the Washington Post reported. A 13-count indictment filed in New York City against Huawei, two affiliates and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, details allegations of bank and wire fraud. The company also is charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice related to the investigation. Canadian officials arrested Meng on a U.S. warrant Dec. 1. She has since been released on bail, and her travel is confined to Vancouver and surrounding areas. Meng could face up to 30 years if found guilty on all counts.

When India introduced new bankruptcy resolution rules in 2016, government officials and investors said they expected debt-burdened state-owned banks to clear up some of their bad loans and create a dynamic market in restructured debt, Reuters reported. Ultimately, they said, they hoped the reform would remove an impediment to higher economic growth. Almost three years later, those hopes have been badly dented. Litigation has tied down some big restructuring deals and bankers are starting to sell bad debts at fire sale prices rather than wait for the system to work better. That is bad news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is keen to get banks lending more to stimulate the economy and create more jobs ahead of an election due by May this year. “The delay (in resolution) definitely affects the diligence and planning effort of financial investors,” said Vijay Padmanabhan, director of KKR & Co. Inc., one of world’s biggest private equity firms which has said it is keen on investing in India’s distressed assets. Although Padmanabhan said the current bankruptcy process was faster than before, he cautioned that “litigations have to be contained and timelines have to be maintained to generate serious interest amongst financial investors.”

Argentina’s YPF S.A. yesterday told a bankruptcy judge that it shouldn’t be forced to pay to clean up the Passaic River, a New Jersey waterway contaminated by decades of industrial use, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. With billions of dollars in potential environmental cleanup costs on the line, YPF’s lawyers denied manipulating a now-defunct U.S. unit to escape liability for one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation. A 17-mile stretch of the Passaic river, upstream and down from Newark, NJ, is so contaminated that crabs and fish aren’t safe to eat. Who will pay to fix the Passaic is the central question of a lawsuit growing out of the bankruptcy of YPF’s Maxus Energy Corp. The case is considered a test of the force that U.S. environmental laws have once bankruptcy laws are in play. YPF, which is solvent and majority-owned by Argentina, owned Maxus, an oil-and-gas company that decades ago manufactured Agent Orange, the herbicide that became notorious for its use in the Vietnam War.

Toyota is recalling 1.7 million vehicles in North America to replace potentially deadly Takata front passenger air bag inflators, Bloomberg News reported. The move announced yesterday includes 1.3 million vehicles in the U.S. and is part of the largest series of automotive recalls in the nation's history. Takata inflators can explode with too much force and hurl shrapnel into drivers and passengers. At least 23 people have been killed worldwide and hundreds have been injured. The recall covers Toyota models including the 2010 through 2016 4Runner, the 2010 through 2013 Corolla and Matrix, and the 2011 through 2014 Sienna. Also covered are Lexus models including the 2010 through 2012 ES 350, the 2010 through 2017 GX 460, the 2010 through 2015 IS 250C and 350C, the 2010 through 2013 IS 250 and 350 and the 2010 through 2014 IS-F. The 2010 through 2015 Scion XB also is included. Toyota's recall is part of a phased-in replacement of Takata inflators. Automakers are scheduled to replace 10 million starting this month. Ford and Honda have already announced recalls. The recalls forced Takata of Japan to seek bankruptcy protection and sell most of its assets to pay for the fixes.