At his attorney’s office in Vancouver, Canada, Meng Wanzhou waited over an hour on Friday, September 24, for late US Judge Ann Donnelly to finally begin a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. , which would pave the way for his release. In front of her screen, the daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Ren Zhengfei drank tea, sometimes smiled, tried to redo the part of her hair, took a strong inspiration regularly, stressed about this first official meeting with American justice.
The United States has been asking Canada for her extradition since her arrest in December 2018, while she was transiting through Vancouver airport on her way to Mexico. This Friday, everything happened quite quickly: Meng Wanzhou gave up having his indictment read; she pleaded not guilty to the four charges against her (bank fraud and electronic transfers and conspiracy to carry out these crimes). Then the prosecutor, translated by an interpreter, presented the terms of the agreement sealed with Meng Wanzhou, which plans to stay the proceedings against her until 1is December 2022 and abandon them permanently if Meng Wuanzhou respects the terms of a good conduct agreement.
Main requirement, not to dispute the account of the facts which tells on four pages how Huawei, of which Meng Wanzhou was financial director, controlled in fact a telecom subsidiary in Iran called Skycom and managed to make it obtain prohibited material, despite American embargoes. As always, it is the use of the dollar (in transactions carried out by HSBC, kept in ignorance of the facts), which allows American justice to act supranational with third parties.
Triumph of the American public prosecutor’s office
In its press release, the US prosecution triumphed by explaining that Meng Wanzhou confessed his wrongs, acknowledging in particular having knowingly lied to the HSBC bank on the reality of the control of Skycom by Huawei during a PowerPoint presentation in Hong Kong in 2013. “His confession confirms that Meng, as Huawei’s chief financial officer, made multiple false statements” for “Preserve the group’s banking relationship” with HSBC, which the bank would not have maintained if it had known the reality of the links with Iran, accuses Brooklyn Deputy Attorney Nicole Boeckmann.
Meng Wanzhou, however, has not pleaded guilty to anything criminally and will be able, after the extradition request has been lifted, to join his family in China after nearly three years of house arrest. The deal does not concern Huawei, which remains sued, and Meng Wanzhou’s testimony, which she cannot dispute, will undoubtedly be used in the US lawsuit against the Chinese giant.
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