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Meng Wangzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese technology giant Huawei, and the US Attorney’s Office have reached an agreement ending allegations of financial fraud. That should mean she can leave Canada, where she was detained on a US extradition request in December 2018. That way, there is at least one point of tension less between China and the United States, Reuters reported.
The news was announced by a prosecutor before a federal court in Brooklyn, as Meng Wanzhou participated in the hearing via video link and stated that she was innocent on all charges.
Among them is banking and financial fraud on suspicion of misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business with Iran. This story was first reported by Reuters in 2012.
According to initial information, only the charges against Meng Wangzhou are being dropped, but not against the company. The agreement expires in December 2022, and as long as it does not violate the law, the charges are dropped.
Huawei has been accused by the United States of running a criminal business, stealing trade secrets and defrauding financial institutions. The company categorically denies the allegations.
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It also opened the door to the release of two Canadians, Michael Spavor, a businessman, and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat detained in China shortly after Meng Wangzhou’s arrest at Vancouver airport. In August, Spavor was sentenced to 11 years in prison for espionage.
Huawei and Meng’s lawyers have not yet commented on the news. She uses the English Cathy and Sabrina as her personal name and is not allowed to leave Vancouver, as her movement is monitored around the clock by a special ankle bracelet. There is also private security, for which she pays as part of the condition to be released on bail.
A Canadian court hearing on the decision on the US extradition request is scheduled for October 21.
Munn is the daughter of Huawei’s founder and is listed in the first U.S. announcement in 2019 to blacklist the company on charges of acting against US national security and interests abroad. The sanctions hit Huawei hard, and it reported the biggest revenue crash in the first half of this year. Parts of the once-dominant mobile segment had to be sold before alternative growth-enhancing segments were developed, Reuters explains.
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Munn’s lawyers say she has become a pawn in a political battle between the two major powers.
U.S. officials say her case is being handled solely by the Department of Justice and is separate from U.S. relations with China. Beijing is demanding that the charges and extradition be dropped, and Washington told Reuters that the Chinese linked the case to that of the two Canadians, but the Americans would not accept an approach in which they were used as a means of bargaining.
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