Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver September 28, 2020. — Reuters pic
“The misstatements omissions in the record of the case,” he told the British Columbia Supreme Court, “go to the very heart of the fraud case.”The Chinese telecom giant’s chief financial officer was arrested on a US warrant in December 2018 during a stopover in Vancouver. Espionage charges were filed against the pair in June, soon after Meng’s first legal setback, when her bid to have the case thrown out — arguing that the US accusations were not crimes in Canada — was defeated.
US indictments allege that Meng and the world’s largest telecoms equipment manufacturer conducted business in Iran in violation of US sanctions through Skycom. The US alleges Meng fraudulently concealed all this from HSBC, putting the bank at risk of unknowingly violating Iran sanctions.