Huawei CFO Meng loses key court fight against extradition to United States

By Tessa Vikander and Moira Warburton

 

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada May 27, 2020. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier

 

VANCOUVER/TORONTO (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies Co's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was dealt a setback by a Canadian court on Wednesday as she tries to avoid extradition to the United States to face bank fraud charges, dashing hopes for an end to her 18-month house arrest in Vancouver.

 

The ruling, which could further deteriorate relations between Ottawa and Beijing, elicited immediate strong reaction from China's embassy in Canada, which said Canada is "accomplice to United States efforts to bring down Huawei and Chinese high-tech companies."

 

Meng, a Chinese citizen and daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder Ren Zheng, was arrested in December 2018 on a warrant issued by U.S. authorities. They accuse her of bank fraud for misleading HSBC about Huawei's relationship with a company operating in Iran, putting HSBC at risk of fines and penalties for breaking U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

 

Meng's lawyers argued the case should be thrown out because Canada did not have sanctions against Iran.

 

But British Columbia's Superior Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes disagreed, ruling the legal standard of double criminality had been met.

 

"Ms. Meng's approach ... would seriously limit Canada's ability to fulfill its international obligations in the extradition context for fraud and other economic crimes," Holmes said.

 

Huawei said it was disappointed by the Canadian court ruling and it expects that Canada's judicial system will ultimately prove her innocence.

 

The ruling paves the way for the extradition hearing to proceed to the second phase starting June, examining whether Canadian officials followed the law while arresting Meng.

 

Closing arguments are expected in the last week of September and first week of October.

 

Reid Weingarten, a U.S. lawyer for Meng, said Meng should "not be a pawn or a hostage" in the China-U.S. relationship. Ties between the two superpowers are deteriorating steadily amid disputes over trade and the future of Hong Kong.

 

"Today's ruling in Canada is only the opening salvo in a very long process ... we are confident that ultimately justice will be done," Weingarten said.

Shortly after the ruling was released Meng, 48, arrived at the courthouse for an in-person briefing and left without talking to the media. Meng says she is innocent.

 

Shortly after Meng's arrest, Beijing detained two Canadians on national security charges and halted imports of canola seed.

 

ICE canola futures dipped on Wednesday, giving up gains after the ruling.

 

The Global Times, published by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, said the ruling "will make Canada a pathetic clown and a scapegoat in the fight between China and the U.S."

 

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa said in a statement that China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the decision on Meng and has made serious representations with Canada.

 

The U.S. Department of Justice thanked Canada for its continued assistance. Canada's justice ministry said its lawyers were committed to moving ahead as fast as possible.

 

(Reporting by Tessa Vikander and Moira Warburton; Additional reporting by David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer in Ottawa, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Denny Thomas and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-28

 

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1 hour ago, webfact said:

dashing hopes for an end to her 18-month house arrest in Vancouver.

now that's a proper quarantine.

There is a reasonable possibility that she did exactly what the US is accusing her of, and if Canada were to let her go to appease China, then what would happen when the US has someone who Canada has reason to want? To be more blunt, when will the world have had enough of China's lies and self-dealing?

14 minutes ago, Enzian said:

There is a reasonable possibility that she did exactly what the US is accusing her of, and if Canada were to let her go to appease China, then what would happen when the US has someone who Canada has reason to want? To be more blunt, when will the world have had enough of China's lies and self-dealing?

Well, Western, largely American companies have spent the last few decades handing technology to China on a plate, in the name of increasing profit.
 

Also, I watched a documentary a while ago about how Bill Clinton pushed for China to be admitted to the WTO, in it he was described as "Chump of the Century".

This whole mess is entirely the fault of the utterly incompetent Trudeau regime.  All the Canadians had to do (in December 2018) to avoid being embroiled in this was to tell the Huawei princess that if she got off the plane in Vancouver, she would be immediately arrested.

 

Stay home (as we are constantly told these days)....if Trudeau had told her to stay home, none of this

BS would be happening.

Because the US is so squeeky clean???

What a lot of rubbish !!!

The world has it out for China now.  Wuhan virus revenge.

Totally BS charges from the very beginning.  She is charged of doing what is legal in China and in fact encouraged, ie: sell your products all over the world.  She is charged of breaking a US law when she is Chinese and doing so in China. How far reaching do the American's think their laws can stretch?  Will they come after a Chinese who is speeding in Thailand next, should that Chinese citizen happen to visit Canada following his trip to Thailand? Crazy.

I do not trust the US government one iota. They have been engaged in industrial spying for decades. Now, they get way behind the curve with regard to the development of 5G and all of a sudden we have a demon in the form of the company on the leading edge. Again, a fake narrative from a justice department that cannot be trusted on any level. Would sure be great if Canada stood up to them. 
 

Not saying the Chinese dictatorship is clean in all this. But, trust the Americans? What have they done to earn our trust lately?

7 hours ago, Enzian said:

There is a reasonable possibility that she did exactly what the US is accusing her of, and if Canada were to let her go to appease China, then what would happen when the US has someone who Canada has reason to want? To be more blunt, when will the world have had enough of China's lies and self-dealing?

Nothing like pre-judging a court case.

 

If the US has a Canadian suspect they should give them up of course or cant you get past the word 'communist' either.

58 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

The world has it out for China now.  Wuhan virus revenge.

How infantile.

Does Canada have similar sanctions on Iran? If the answer is no, how then can the Canadian bank be put at risk. Such a miscarriage of justice. 

12 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Does Canada have similar sanctions on Iran? If the answer is no, how then can the Canadian bank be put at risk. Such a miscarriage of justice. 

 what miscarriage? they ruled it was bank fraud - fraud is prosecuted in Canada. Now the tit for tat kidnapping of two Canadian citizens - that's the real miscarriage though it was expected considering where they were working..

Edited May 28, 20206 yr by from the home of CC

Ahh, yes, a non-American detained outside of America for breaking American laws while not in America. 

 

Gotta laugh. 

Edited May 28, 20206 yr by JeffersLos

25 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Does Canada have similar sanctions on Iran? If the answer is no, how then can the Canadian bank be put at risk. Such a miscarriage of justice. 

 

The BBC report on this included a quote from Trudeau saying that the decision was important and right because it was important to show Canada had a justice system that was free from political interference.

 

Given his past record, the enormous ironies in his statement seemed to have escaped him!

 

 

1 hour ago, jasonsamui55 said:

Totally BS charges from the very beginning.  She is charged of doing what is legal in China and in fact encouraged, ie: sell your products all over the world.  She is charged of breaking a US law when she is Chinese and doing so in China. How far reaching do the American's think their laws can stretch?  Will they come after a Chinese who is speeding in Thailand next, should that Chinese citizen happen to visit Canada following his trip to Thailand? Crazy.

If you think that Chinese companies are so clean, look at what gonna happen soon in the US.

 

Every Chinese company listed on the US stock exchange is required to have a proper audit to western standards, or get delisted.

 

Many of them have never had any audit at all, for obvious reasons, so look how many of those Chines multinationals turn out to be fakes

Wouldn't want to be a high ranking American business person in China right now.  Fair chance one or two will be randomly arrested and quickly convicted for corruption charges.

11 hours ago, Enzian said:

There is a reasonable possibility that she did exactly what the US is accusing her of, and if Canada were to let her go to appease China, then what would happen when the US has someone who Canada has reason to want? To be more blunt, when will the world have had enough of China's lies and self-dealing?

Canada should first look into Commonwealth legal precedents and give them serious and extraordinary weight when adjudicating this extradition case. There's the arrogant diplomat-wannabe who murdered Harry Dunn and escaped prosecution in the UK by returning to the US and preposterously and shamelessly claiming diplomatic immunity. These long-nosed bullies have the audacity.

 

Good on China for standing their ground.  

5 hours ago, jasonsamui55 said:

Totally BS charges from the very beginning.  She is charged of doing what is legal in China and in fact encouraged, ie: sell your products all over the world.  She is charged of breaking a US law when she is Chinese and doing so in China. How far reaching do the American's think their laws can stretch?  Will they come after a Chinese who is speeding in Thailand next, should that Chinese citizen happen to visit Canada following his trip to Thailand? Crazy.

It is quite obvious you don't have a clue what this case is about.

 

She allegedly lied to a bank in Hong Kong about ties to a company doing business in Iran. At this point, no US laws are broken. However, as a result of her fraudulent claim, this bank executed transactions through the US clearing system, on US soil. This is where US law was broken. Don't want to follow US laws, don't use the US banking system. Very simple.

4 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Does Canada have similar sanctions on Iran? If the answer is no, how then can the Canadian bank be put at risk. Such a miscarriage of justice. 

I read the 26 page judicial decision. The Iran sanctions were not the "essence" of the case. The lies made by Weng were the essence of the fraud, and the Iranian sanctions were a "state of affairs". And this a big differentiator in how extradition cases are judged.  But that would not matter in your beloved China, because the case would be decided purely on it's political merit. It's quite obvious from the Chinese propaganda rags that it is seriously beyond Chinese comprehension how a case would not be influenced by politics.

 

If you can get to the judicial decision over the great firewall, you should give it a read. But don't get caught - might lower your social score!

10 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

I do not trust the US government one iota. They have been engaged in industrial spying for decades. Now, they get way behind the curve with regard to the development of 5G and all of a sudden we have a demon in the form of the company on the leading edge. Again, a fake narrative from a justice department that cannot be trusted on any level. Would sure be great if Canada stood up to them. 
 

Not saying the Chinese dictatorship is clean in all this. But, trust the Americans? What have they done to earn our trust lately?

theyve earned my trust by standing up to the exporters of the wuhan virus !

For those of you who might be behind the great firewall here is the complete judgement for your review and enjoyment. If you are not behind the great wall, you can read here:

https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/20/07/2020BCSC0785.htm

 

Meng W-SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.docx

Edited May 28, 20206 yr by Banana7

7 hours ago, honcho said:

theyve earned my trust by standing up to the exporters of the wuhan virus !

Wow. If all it takes is making a few nasty statements, to gain your trust, after decades of massive worldwide deceptions, assassination attempts, betrayals, and bloodbaths, can I sell you a bridge? It is a lovel 2,766 meter suspension bridge, that earns $234,000 per day in tolls. I can offer it to you for only $800,000. Three days income. Sound ok? Can I send my bank info. Or, do you actually want details? 

51 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Wow. If all it takes is making a few nasty statements, to gain your trust, after decades of massive worldwide deceptions, assassination attempts, betrayals, and bloodbaths, can I sell you a bridge? It is a lovel 2,766 meter suspension bridge, that earns $234,000 per day in tolls. I can offer it to you for only $800,000. Three days income. Sound ok? Can I send my bank info. Or, do you actually want details? 

Lol, fake! Your bridge only goes half way, as does your point.

5 minutes ago, rabas said:

Lol, fake! Your bridge only goes half way, as does your point.

In this day and age of misinformation, fake news, deflection, toxic tweets, and bad behavior of those in power, halfway is pretty good! I will take it.

14 hours ago, brucec64 said:

I read the 26 page judicial decision. The Iran sanctions were not the "essence" of the case. The lies made by Weng were the essence of the fraud, and the Iranian sanctions were a "state of affairs". And this a big differentiator in how extradition cases are judged.  But that would not matter in your beloved China, because the case would be decided purely on it's political merit. It's quite obvious from the Chinese propaganda rags that it is seriously beyond Chinese comprehension how a case would not be influenced by politics.

 

If you can get to the judicial decision over the great firewall, you should give it a read. But don't get caught - might lower your social score!

So what was up with Trump's statements that she was available as a bargaining chip in trade talks?  The hypocrisy of you yanks knows no limits! 

19 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Does Canada have similar sanctions on Iran? If the answer is no, how then can the Canadian bank be put at risk. Such a miscarriage of justice. 

Please read post #23 and the entire judgement which explains the law, relevant cases, and analysis. Canadian sanctions on Iran have no relevance in the case.

11 minutes ago, pegman said:

So what was up with Trump's statements that she was available as a bargaining chip in trade talks?  The hypocrisy of you yanks knows no limits! 

I think that was just the usual Trump, saying something without knowing anything about it.

19 hours ago, JeffersLos said:

Ahh, yes, a non-American detained outside of America for breaking American laws while not in America. 

 

Gotta laugh. 

Exactly.  And that's what makes it so utterly ridiculous.

1 hour ago, pegman said:

So what was up with Trump's statements that she was available as a bargaining chip in trade talks?  The hypocrisy of you yanks knows no limits! 

I'm not a yank, and that was trump just talking his usual s**t. The case was not swayed by the US or China. Personally, I wish we had not been dragged into the middle of this, but now that we are, we will deal with it appropriately using the rule of law.