Justice department lawyer Robert Frater said the case against Meng is about dishonest commercial dealings
A senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies committed fraud because of what she said during a meeting with a bank official, and what she did not say, a Canadian government lawyer told an extradition hearing Wednesday.
Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and the company’s chief financial officer, at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018. The U.S. wants her extradited to face fraud charges. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise.
The U.S. accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. It says Meng, 49, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.
The lengthy extradition proceeding is entering a phase which involves arguments over the U.S. government’s request to extradite Meng.
Justice department lawyer Robert Frater said the case against Meng is “about dishonest commercial dealings.”
Meng met with an HSBC executive after a series of news stories connected Huawei with Skycom.
Ms. Meng’s statements during the meeting were dishonest because of what she did say and because of what she did not say, Frater said. Meng told the bank official that Huawei was not engaged in any activity that may cause HSBC to run afoul of US sanction law.
She also said Huawei was rigorous in its sanction compliance and demanded the same of any partners working in Iran.
The truth is, Huawei was in full control of Skycom, Frater said. Skycom is Huawei.
The dishonesty was partly through painting a picture of distance through what Ms. Meng did say and neglecting to disclose the true nature of the relationship by omission. What we have here are sins of both commission and omission.
Associate Chief justice Heather asked Frater why a large bank like HSBC would rely on the word of one person.
Frater said Meng was important because she was Huawei’s CFO.
Holmes wondered if it was Meng’s responsibility to explain risk to HSBC.
She is the one that gives them the information which they can assess the risk, Frater said. The message she is convening to them is you are at not risk at all because we are complying with all sanctions.
Under further questioning from Holmes, Frater said some business could legally be done with Iran and it was part of Meng’s job to know what the restrictions were.
The judge also asked if Meng assured the bank there was no risk of sanction violations, wouldn’t they assume Huawei had control of Skycom.
Frater said the message Meng sent was that Huawei “didn’t work with bad people.”