The Government of Joe Biden has proposed this Friday to a New York court to “postpone” until the end of 2022 the proceedings initiated three years ago against the Chinese financial director of the telecommunications giant Huawei, Meng Wenzhou , accused of “bank fraud.”
If the terms of this agreement, proposed by a representative of the Department of Justice, are validated by the federal court of Brooklyn, in a hearing this Friday, Meng Wenzhou – who appears by video from Canada, where he is under house arrest -, will be able to return to China.
Bank fraud
In early December 2018, the United States Attorney’s Office sued the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Chinese technology Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, on charges of fraud for trying to circumvent the financial sanctions imposed against Iran.
Meng, 48, was detained in Canada at the request of the United States, as part of a broader investigation into an alleged plan by Huawei to use the international financial system to circumvent the restrictions imposed by Washington on Tehran.
The details of the accusation were known during the judicial hearing that took place in the Supreme Court of British Columbia amid great media expectation. Meng, who is the daughter of the founder of Huawei.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang criticized that neither Canada nor the United States provided evidence that Meng violated the law in either country, and demanded his immediate release.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, whom this case has placed in the crossfire, clarified that the North American nation values its relationship with China. According to him, Ottawa has assured Beijing that due process will be strictly respected.
House arrest
Currently, the executive is in Canada on bail of US $ 7.9 million , permanently guarded by security guards – which Meng must pay out of his own pocket – pending the Canadian justice ruling whether whether or not he is extradited.
Huawei strongly defends the innocence of its CFO . One of the defense arguments to invalidate the extradition are the numerous irregularities and abuses that she denounces in the process of arresting the executive, as well as the maneuvers that she describes as orchestrated by both countries so that the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA ) interrogated Meng without the presence of his lawyers, and confiscated his electronic devices to obtain his passwords and provide them to the FBI.
Now, with the momentary withdrawal of the US government, Huawei’s CFO could return to China.
