U.K. Judge Blocks Huawei Request for HSBC Disclosure
A U.K. court has refused Huawei’s application to force HSBC to release internal documents in a bid to strengthen its case against the extradition of Meng Wanzhou to the U.S.
Huawei faces another setback in an attempt to disprove
HSBC’s claim that the Chinese smartphone maker had deceived the British lender
and that it had «repeatedly misrepresented» its business dealings in Iran,
effectively contravening U.S. sanctions.
Meng Wanzhou, Huawei CFO and daughter of its founder, was
detained in Canada in 2018 and since then, her lawyers have been attempting to
prevent her extradition to the U.S. to face charges of bank and wire fraud
related to business dealings in Iran conducted via a subsidiary called Skycom.
This application for disclosure in the U.K. was without
merit and we are pleased that the High Court agreed with our position,»
according to an HSBC spokesperson.
According to Justice Fordham, a high court judge in England,
the ruling was made on the basis that the U.K. had no jurisdiction to issue the
order requested by HSBC and that it also did not agree with the request on the
grounds of interpretation. Huawei was also ordered to pay 80,000 British pounds
to cover HSBC’s costs.
Huawei made the disclosure application based on rules set in
an 1879 statute on bankers’ books but Judge Fordham said the law defined
«books» as ledgers and similar entries» rather than «everything that a bank
has, or does, or writes down, in the course of its ordinary business as a
bank».
«Huawei is disappointed by today’s court ruling,» according
to a spokesperson for the firm. «The pursuit of justice benefits from access to
relevant information and clarity of fact.
The disclosure application involves documents that Huawei
lawyers claim are related to a meeting between Meng and a senior banker at a
Hong Kong-based restaurant in August 2013.
During the meeting, Meng allegedly delivered a 16-slide
PowerPoint presentation but her lawyers claim that U.S. prosecutors omitted key
information from two slides that disclosed the Iranian business dealings.
If true, this would place doubt not only on U.S. claims but
also on HSBC’s claims, according to Meng’s lawyers, as it would prove they had
sufficient information to assess the risk for clearing U.S. dollar
transactions.
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