In Huawei CFO case last
court hearing, Lawyers representing Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou have asked Canadian
judges overseeing her extradition case to allow her to introduce additional documents
to support her case.
The lawyers presented part
of the documents from HSBC that they said disproved US claims that Wanzhou misled
the bank about Huawei's relationship with Iranian-based Skycom. If the court
admits the records, she will use them in a final round of extradition hearings
scheduled for August.
Wanzhou's lawyers
obtained the documents from HSBC under a deal overseen by a Hong Kong court in
April.
Wanzhou is fighting extradition to the US in
Canadian courts. She is accused of lying to an HSBC executive in Hong Kong in
August 2013 about Huawei's relationship with Skycom, which the US
government says violated its sanctions on Iran.
The emails and documents
submitted so far prove that HSBC executives were aware of connections between
Huawei and Skycom, the lawyers argue. This counters US charges that only junior
employees of the UK-based bank knew about the true nature of the relationship
between Huawei and Skycom.
The
records show that a senior bank executive who had the title
of "Managing Director" and responsible for risk assessment
was fully aware of the connection between Huawei and Skycom. The executive
proposed to HSBC's risk committee that the bank continue its relationship
with Huawei and signed four risk assessment reports in support.
The
US also alleges that HSBC relied on a PowerPoint presentation by Wanzhou to
assess risks. However, records
presented in court show that HSBC Asia Pacific Risk Committee conducted a risk
assessment on Huawei's relationship with Skycom after a Reuters report in
December 2012 that said Skycom's operations in Iran might violate the US's
Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).
The
Asia Pacific Customer Selection Committee then delivered a report to the bank's
global risk committee suggesting that it is acceptable that HSBC
continues its cooperation with Huawei.
Additionally,
the Director of Client Management, China Large Corporates, wrote an
email on January 2, 2013, to an HSBC executive and others
to further explain the relationship between Huawei and Skycom. The email
mentioned that Huawei and Skycom used the same address and had HSBC accounts.
Attached with the email was Skycom's 2011 financial statements, which showed
that Skycom's business was mainly conducted in Iran. This suggests that
HSBC senior executives at this point were already aware of Huawei's
relationship with Skycom and Skycom's business presence in Iran
and could assess the associated business risks based on this
information.
Huawei, China's biggest
technology company, has been caught in the middle of a political and trade war
between the US and China. Pundits see the US using Wanzhou as a bargaining chip
in the bitter dispute.
