Huawei CFO officially off the hook from US fraud charges
A major figurehead the US government has been targeting in its legal salvo against Chinese telecoms giantHuaweiis officially coming off the hook. This latest move by prosecutors ends a years-long saga that saw the firm’s CFO detained in Canada under threat of extradition to its southern neighbor to face charges of fraud over the breaching of financial sanctions.
The CBC reportsthat the government is seeking to dismiss a variety of civil and criminal charges against Meng Wanzhou.
Meng was arrested in Canada on a US warrant in 2018on claims she misled creditors to expand Huawei’s business in Iran, a move that would violate American trade sanctions. In quick succession, China then detained two Canadian nationals on various charges including drug smuggling and espionage — these were widely seen as retaliations against the US with the anticipation of setting a wedge into its relationship with Canada. Prosecutors struck a deal with Meng in September of 2021, allowing her to return home and defer prosecution in exchange for admitting wrongdoing.
The request to drop charges against Meng comes four years to the day she was originally arrested in British Columbia.
Huawei, bitten by an imports ban, is a long way from its glory days of putting outthe best of what Android had to offer. Worse yet, itstill faces rafts of chargesfor racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets, though it looks as though a trial is still months in the offing.
All throughout this ordeal, the United States has seen greater success in its counteroffensive against Huawei — dubbed a national security threat — and its global growth, convincing ally governments in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership ofCanada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand to ban Huawei equipment on its next-gen cellular networks. EU member nations have also followed suit, putting a major squeeze on one of the company’s most important sources of foreign revenue.
If you’re looking for some deeper weekend reading,Politico Europehas a detailed look at the Huawei’s retrenchment from the continent and where it hopes to strike a comeback.
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