Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, walked free on Friday after reaching a deal with US prosecutors to resolve criminal fraud charges that led to her detention in Vancouver for nearly three years and deepened a diplomatic rift between China and the US and Canada.
A Canadian judge ordered Meng’s release on Friday, just hours after US prosecutors announced a deferred prosecution agreement with her during a federal court hearing in Brooklyn before US Judge Ann Donnelly. Meng, 49, attended the US hearing by video.
If Meng complies with the terms of the US agreement — in which she acknowledged misleading HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with a Hong Kong-based company called Skycom that operated in Iran — the charges against her will be dismissed by December 2022, US prosecutors said.
Meng’s release in Vancouver came after the US justice department rescinded its request for her extradition. US prosecutors said they will continue to prepare for a trial on related charges against Huawei. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver airport and has since been living in her mansion in the city under electronic surveillance.
In a statement outside the courthouse in Vancouver on Friday, Meng said: “Over the past three years my life has been turned upside down. It was a disruptive time for me as a mother, a wife and a company executive.
She added: “But I believe every cloud has a silver lining. It really was an invaluable experience in my life.”
US authorities had sought to extradite Meng from Canada to face charges of bank and wire fraud, alleging she misled banks into processing transactions for Huawei that breached US sanctions on Iran. She pleaded not guilty to the charges during Friday’s hearing.
Meng admitted to misleading HSBC during a PowerPoint presentation in Hong Kong in 2013, saying Huawei’s relationship with Skycom was “normal and controllable business co-operation”, according to court documents.
She described Skycom, which Huawei controlled until at least 2014, as a “business partner” and “third party Huawei works with” in Iran. While Meng claimed the Chinese company had sold its shares in Skycom, the stock had actually been acquired by an entity controlled by Huawei, prosecutors said.
“In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution,” said Nicole Boeckmann, acting US attorney for the eastern district of New York.
Court documents also said Huawei “caused Skycom to conduct” approximately $100m in transactions via HSBC that cleared through the US, some of which supported work in Iran. This included payments worth $7.5m to a UK staffing company for providing engineers in Iran to support Skycom.
Alan Kohler, assistant director at the FBI’s counter-intelligence division, described Meng’s admissions as “evidence of a consistent pattern of deception to violate US law”.
“We fully expect the indictment will be dismissed with prejudice after fourteen months. Now, she will be free to return home to be with her family,” a lawyer for Meng, William Taylor of Zuckerman Spaeder, said in a statement.
Meng’s detention triggered a rift between Canada and China and became a flashpoint in efforts by then-US president Donald Trump to challenge Huawei’s growing sway in 5G mobile technologies. US authorities have claimed Beijing can use Huawei equipment to spy on the west.
The Department of Justice Canada said the withdrawal of the US extradition request meant Meng was “free to leave Canada,” adding: “Canada is a rule of law country. Meng Wanzhou was afforded a fair process before the courts in accordance with Canadian law. This speaks to the independence of Canada’s judicial system.”
After her arrest, Beijing detained two Canadian citizens — known as the “two Michaels” — for more than two years, in cases viewed by Canada as retaliations for Meng’s arrest in Vancouver.
Michael Spavor, who ran cultural exchanges with North Korea from China, was sentenced in August to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners. Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, has also been detained, reportedly accused of aiding Spavor in spying.
Spavor’s sentencing decision came a day after a Chinese court upheld a death sentence for Robert Schellenberg, another Canadian citizen, who had been found guilty of planning to send 225kg of methamphetamine to Australia. Schellenberg denies the charges.
Beijing maintains that the trials of Schellenberg, Spavor and Kovrig have been handled in accordance with Chinese law.
Progress in the three cases has often matched developments in Meng’s extradition hearings, prompting human rights groups and former Canadian diplomats to accuse Beijing of “hostage diplomacy”.
There was no mention in Friday’s proceedings about the fate of the detained men.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzhkNmNhYmYxLTI2ODMtNDVlMS1hNjdmLTE5ZGQ1MzFiMzA1ZNIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzhkNmNhYmYxLTI2ODMtNDVlMS1hNjdmLTE5ZGQ1MzFiMzA1ZA?oc=5
2021-09-24 22:12:09Z
52781899690382
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar