Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou escapes fraud charges

Dec. 5, 2022
The dismissal is part of a deferred prosecution agreement reached with U.S. federal prosecutors last year in which Meng admitted to making misleading statements to HSBC regarding Huawei’s sales activities in Iran.

A U.S. District Court judge in Brooklyn has dismissed bank fraud and all other charges against Huawei CFO and current Rotating Chairwoman Meng Wanzhou. The dismissal is part of a deferred prosecution agreement reached with U.S. federal prosecutors last year in which Meng admitted to making misleading statements to HSBC regarding Huawei’s sales activities in Iran.

Meng agreed to the deferred prosecution agreement last September (see “Huawei CFO Meng back in China after deal with U.S. DoJ”). She then returned home to China after spending the majority of the time since she was picked up by authorities in a Vancouver, BC, airport in 2018 under house arrest in Canada (see “Canada arrests Huawei CFO at U.S. request”). The case sparked tensions between China and Canada as the latter declined to release Meng as she went through the legal process for extradition to the U.S. Two Canadian citizens were arrested on spy charges in China during this time; they were released after the filing of the deferred prosecution agreement.

Meng, Huawei, and the Chinese government had all denied the charges before she admitted to making false statements as part of the agreement. Huawei remains charged with supplying U.S. technology to Iran through a shell company in defiance of an export embargo (see “Justice Department files new Huawei charges”). The company maintains its innocence in this case.

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