HSBC says yes to releasing documents in Huawei extradition case
Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou will have access to documents from HSBC in her case to avoid extradition to the US.
Meng has been on restricted bail in Canada since December
2018 fighting extradition to the US to face charges relating to alleged fraud concerning
exports to Iran.
Meng and Huawei deny all the charges, which say that she
deceived the bank when discussing exports of Huawei equipment to Iran, in
contravention of a US embargo.
A London judge earlier this year refused to order HSBC to
release documents that Meng believes will help her case in Vancouver. But then
she took the case to Hong Kong and she and HSBC have told a Hong Kong court
that they have reached an agreement over the documents.
A Huawei spokeswoman told the South China Morning Post: “An
agreement has been reached with HSBC in relation to the Hong Kong legal
proceedings for document production and an order has been approved by the
court.”
However details of the agreement are not immediately
available.
This is her first significant victory in the legal battle,
already 28 months old. Whatever decision the Vancouver court arrives at later
this year, appeals from one side or the other are likely to leave the issue
unresolved for a long time to come.
Meng has been continuing to work as CFO from her house in
Vancouver, with a range of Huawei colleagues.
The documents in question relate to what HSBC knew or didn’t
know about Huawei as well as its intermediaries in its business with Iran,
Skycom and Canicula Holdings.
Lawyers for the US are saying that in a Hong Kong meeting
with HSBC she misrepresented Huawei’s operations in Iran, causing the bank to
be at risk of sanctions violations.
Her case is that HSBC did know — and also that the US has no
jurisdiction in the matter, as HSBC is a UK-registered bank. The US says it
does have jurisdiction because the transactions were in US dollars.
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