After Trump’s Defeat, The U.S. DOJ Is Offering A Deal For Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou To Return Home
Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., may be able to return home to China from Canada soon. The daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei was arrested in December 2018 following an extradition warrant issued by the U.S. and has been charged with bank and wire fraud linked to alleged breaches of sanctions against Iran.
Also known as Sabrina, the Huawei CFO was accused of having violated a U.S. trade embargo against Iran via a Hong Kong-based company named Skycom Tech Co Ltd. She was alleged to have lied to a bank from 2009 to 2014 about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, an unofficial Huawei subsidiary in Iran. Meng was accused of using Skycom to evade sanctions on Iran.
However, Meng said she is innocent of the charges and is fighting extradition to the United States – a process that could take years. Otherwise called Cathy Meng, the Huawei princess faces up to 30 years in prison in the U.S. if found guilty of the charges. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Justice is discussing a deal with Meng.
The dramatic proposed settlement between the U.S. and Sabrina Meng coincidentally came after the humiliating defeat of President Donald Trump. In exchange for dropping the criminal cases, hence allowing her to return home to China, the Huawei CFO is required to admit to some of the allegations against her. But Meng has so far rejected the deal, believing she did nothing wrong.
The U.S. Justice Department said there’s a possibility of deferring the prosecution and later drop the charges – if Ms. Meng cooperates. Obviously, the deal was to enable the U.S. to save face as there is no longer an incentive to proceed after Trump lost to Biden. The arrest of Meng is widely believed to be a political move by Trump, who sees Huawei as a national-security threat.
President-elect Joe Biden has said that he would like to negotiate with Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal that had been scrapped by Trump administration. Therefore, it makes little sense for the U.S. DOJ put resources on a case originally meant to align with Trump’s policy that has so far not only strained the relationship between the U.S. and China, but also Canada-China bilateral ties.
In May 2019, in what appeared to be a preparation for a long legal fight against her extradition to the U.S., Meng had moved from her C$5 million (US$3.7 million; £2.8 million; RM15.4 million) six-bedroom house to her newly renovated C$13 million (US$9.6 million; £7.4 million; RM40 million) seven-bedroom mansion. And her plan to outlive Trump’s presidency works.
Her lawyers’ strategy is to drag the case for as long as possible, seeking a stay of her extradition due to “political factors”. The attorneys said she is innocent because the banks involved, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, actually had knowledge of the nature of Skycom’s business and operations in Iran and understood the company’s relationship with Huawei.
Sabrina’s defense team has also taken offence with her arrest on December 1, 2018 in Vancouver International Airport. Her legal eagles claimed that during the three hours she was held, her luggage was detained and searched. The FBI (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) had also seized her cellphone and electronic devices, forcing her to reveal her passwords of the devices.
When 46-year-old Meng landed at Vancouver International Airport aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong at 11:35am on December 1, 2018, she was expecting to have a 12-hour layover before proceeding to Mexico. Upon learning of her trip, the U.S. had requested Canada to arrest the Huawei CFO. On November 30, a Canadian judge reportedly agreed to grant the U.S. request.
In the same breath, Meng’s defence team argued that the extradition request from the U.S. does not satisfy a requirement known as “double criminality”. Double criminality, or dual criminality, states that a suspect can be extradited from one country to stand trial for breaking a second country’s laws only if a similar law exists in the extraditing country.
In essence, it means the crime of which Sabrina Meng is accused of by the U.S. must also be a crime in Canada. In this case, the Huawei CFO is accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. However, her attorneys argued that Canada does not have sanctions on financial services in Iran. Hence, she cannot be extradited for the alleged bank and wire fraud or conspiracy to commit the offence.
More importantly, her lawyers argued in court that the arrest has been politically motivated from the beginning, despite Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim that Ms Meng’s arrest had “no political involvement”. Meng’s lawyers said comments by Trump, who said the charges could be dropped if that would help China trade talks, is proof that the case was politically motivated.
The arrest had escalated tensions between the U.S. and China because coincidentally, it happened on the same night the U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping dined together in Buenos Aires and agreed to a 90-day trade truce. At the same time, the arrest provoked a furious reaction from President Xi against Canada.
Just 10 days after Canada arrested Meng, China retaliated by detaining two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, and charged them with participating in activities that harm China’s national security. More than 18 months after they were detained in secret detention, both Canadians were finally charged with spying in June 2020.
Beijing also sent two Canadians on death row, forcing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse Beijing of “arbitrarily” using capital punishment, deepening a diplomatic rift between the two countries. But Beijing was not done punishing Ottawa. In March 2019, Beijing blocked canola seed shipments from Richardson International and Viterra Inc – Canada’s two top exporters.
In June this year, China has temporarily suspended beef imports from Canada. Interestingly, PM Trudeau himself faced pressure from an ex-Supreme Court justice and several former foreign ministers to drop the extradition case against Sabrina Meng in hopes that it will spur China to release the two Canadians.
As early as January 2019, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S.David MacNaughton had blamed the U.S. for the diplomatic fallout, saying – “We don’t like that it is our citizens who are being punished. [The Americans] are the ones seeking to have the full force of American law brought against [Ms. Meng] and yet we are the ones who are paying the price. Our citizens are.”
Lawyers of the Huawei CFO and the U.S. Justice Department are expected to continue negotiation in hopes of reaching agreement before the end of Trump administration. From the beginning, the DOJ’s pursuit of Huawei is part of Trump administration effort against the Chinese tech giant, and never about the company’s executive. Unfortunately, Meng Wanzhou happens to be Huawei’s princess.
Also known as Sabrina, the Huawei CFO was accused of having violated a U.S. trade embargo against Iran via a Hong Kong-based company named Skycom Tech Co Ltd. She was alleged to have lied to a bank from 2009 to 2014 about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, an unofficial Huawei subsidiary in Iran. Meng was accused of using Skycom to evade sanctions on Iran.
However, Meng said she is innocent of the charges and is fighting extradition to the United States – a process that could take years. Otherwise called Cathy Meng, the Huawei princess faces up to 30 years in prison in the U.S. if found guilty of the charges. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Justice is discussing a deal with Meng.
The dramatic proposed settlement between the U.S. and Sabrina Meng coincidentally came after the humiliating defeat of President Donald Trump. In exchange for dropping the criminal cases, hence allowing her to return home to China, the Huawei CFO is required to admit to some of the allegations against her. But Meng has so far rejected the deal, believing she did nothing wrong.
The U.S. Justice Department said there’s a possibility of deferring the prosecution and later drop the charges – if Ms. Meng cooperates. Obviously, the deal was to enable the U.S. to save face as there is no longer an incentive to proceed after Trump lost to Biden. The arrest of Meng is widely believed to be a political move by Trump, who sees Huawei as a national-security threat.
President-elect Joe Biden has said that he would like to negotiate with Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal that had been scrapped by Trump administration. Therefore, it makes little sense for the U.S. DOJ put resources on a case originally meant to align with Trump’s policy that has so far not only strained the relationship between the U.S. and China, but also Canada-China bilateral ties.
In May 2019, in what appeared to be a preparation for a long legal fight against her extradition to the U.S., Meng had moved from her C$5 million (US$3.7 million; £2.8 million; RM15.4 million) six-bedroom house to her newly renovated C$13 million (US$9.6 million; £7.4 million; RM40 million) seven-bedroom mansion. And her plan to outlive Trump’s presidency works.
Her lawyers’ strategy is to drag the case for as long as possible, seeking a stay of her extradition due to “political factors”. The attorneys said she is innocent because the banks involved, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, actually had knowledge of the nature of Skycom’s business and operations in Iran and understood the company’s relationship with Huawei.
Sabrina’s defense team has also taken offence with her arrest on December 1, 2018 in Vancouver International Airport. Her legal eagles claimed that during the three hours she was held, her luggage was detained and searched. The FBI (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) had also seized her cellphone and electronic devices, forcing her to reveal her passwords of the devices.
When 46-year-old Meng landed at Vancouver International Airport aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong at 11:35am on December 1, 2018, she was expecting to have a 12-hour layover before proceeding to Mexico. Upon learning of her trip, the U.S. had requested Canada to arrest the Huawei CFO. On November 30, a Canadian judge reportedly agreed to grant the U.S. request.
In the same breath, Meng’s defence team argued that the extradition request from the U.S. does not satisfy a requirement known as “double criminality”. Double criminality, or dual criminality, states that a suspect can be extradited from one country to stand trial for breaking a second country’s laws only if a similar law exists in the extraditing country.
In essence, it means the crime of which Sabrina Meng is accused of by the U.S. must also be a crime in Canada. In this case, the Huawei CFO is accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. However, her attorneys argued that Canada does not have sanctions on financial services in Iran. Hence, she cannot be extradited for the alleged bank and wire fraud or conspiracy to commit the offence.
More importantly, her lawyers argued in court that the arrest has been politically motivated from the beginning, despite Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim that Ms Meng’s arrest had “no political involvement”. Meng’s lawyers said comments by Trump, who said the charges could be dropped if that would help China trade talks, is proof that the case was politically motivated.
The arrest had escalated tensions between the U.S. and China because coincidentally, it happened on the same night the U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping dined together in Buenos Aires and agreed to a 90-day trade truce. At the same time, the arrest provoked a furious reaction from President Xi against Canada.
Just 10 days after Canada arrested Meng, China retaliated by detaining two Canadians, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, and charged them with participating in activities that harm China’s national security. More than 18 months after they were detained in secret detention, both Canadians were finally charged with spying in June 2020.
Beijing also sent two Canadians on death row, forcing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accuse Beijing of “arbitrarily” using capital punishment, deepening a diplomatic rift between the two countries. But Beijing was not done punishing Ottawa. In March 2019, Beijing blocked canola seed shipments from Richardson International and Viterra Inc – Canada’s two top exporters.
In June this year, China has temporarily suspended beef imports from Canada. Interestingly, PM Trudeau himself faced pressure from an ex-Supreme Court justice and several former foreign ministers to drop the extradition case against Sabrina Meng in hopes that it will spur China to release the two Canadians.
As early as January 2019, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S.David MacNaughton had blamed the U.S. for the diplomatic fallout, saying – “We don’t like that it is our citizens who are being punished. [The Americans] are the ones seeking to have the full force of American law brought against [Ms. Meng] and yet we are the ones who are paying the price. Our citizens are.”
Lawyers of the Huawei CFO and the U.S. Justice Department are expected to continue negotiation in hopes of reaching agreement before the end of Trump administration. From the beginning, the DOJ’s pursuit of Huawei is part of Trump administration effort against the Chinese tech giant, and never about the company’s executive. Unfortunately, Meng Wanzhou happens to be Huawei’s princess.
sabrina use iphone, zombie use huawei. sabrina children go to school in vancouver, zombie children go to school in ccpland.
ReplyDeletewhile stupid twat cant even write his mother name in zhongwen.
& demoNcratic dickheaded katak go where?
DeleteCan u write yr name in zhongwen?
can, me sure write my chinese name in zhongwen, contrasting non chinese name like sabrina, jack, robin, twat, cunny kok, all written in chinese with english characteristics.
DeleteIs HY a written zhongwen name? Or a katak-ised coconut name!
DeleteOr u r farting lies with yr confused definition of "sabrina, jack, robin, twat, cunny kok " r all written in chinese with english characteristics?
Maybe that's where u show yr katak-ised Formosa influences.
Ain't what u have just farted about so prevalently used by HK 废青 & coconut-ised 台毒 morons?
Every foreign company that operates in the United States of America signs of the legal acknowledgement that it is subject to the laws of the USA...and that includes US Sanctions laws against Financial transactions with proscribed countries.
ReplyDeleteOne of the key signatories is the company's Chief Financial Officer.
You don't have to like it... you can always elect not to do business in the USA.
Take it or leave it.
Then WHY r US, EU, Oz companies that violate those 'legal acknowledgement' ONLY the companies r been punished, not the top management personnel?
DeleteOf course lah, u can quote exception like the Mr Frederic Pierucci in his personal experience with the extraterritorial reach of US laws as president of Alstom's furnace division.
But even then this French executive was arrested with US, not anywhere outside!
Indeed - take it or leave it - as in been dictated by a long-arm jurisdiction as a weapon to stymie competition and other countries.
U r justifying yr demoNcratic idol's unitary arm twisting!
Like Riza Aziz, Musa Aman, Ku Nan etc, once the Country Leader is defeated in election, Sabrina aka Cathy aka what else can do a deal.....that's normal...
ReplyDeleteThe presidential election is far from over as the Trump's campaign has got numerous proof of rigging by the Dems. Eventually Biden will concede in exchange for him not to be charged for treason!!!
ReplyDeleteAlamak, Tanah Air kita ni crawling with Trumpsters ! The Orange Reptile memang power la....his farts 6000 miles away smells better than Musang King, hehehehe
DeleteThis piece is from a Canadian :
ReplyDeleteThe daughter of Huawei’s founder, who we’re currently holding prisoner?
She didn’t break any Canadian laws. And there’s zero evidence she did anything wrong, let alone what the US is accusing her of doing. But the US ordered us to arrest her for extradition, so that’s what we did.
Why does the US really want her? I guess because once she’s in the US and facing a 40-year prison term, she’ll make a hell of a bargaining chip to use against China.
Now I don’t condone China’s imprisonment of two Canadians in response. But really, who started this? We knew Meng Wanzhou was the daughter of one of China’s biggest (government-connected) businessmen. We knew we were starting something big, just to kowtow to our southern neighbour. We shouldn’t have done it. Did we imagine China wouldn’t do anything in response?
Surely we should’ve considered the cost/risk and benefit of such a move? There was no benefit that I can see, and the risk was major. Of course we have an extradition treaty with the US, but we could have politely declined in this case, or asked to see evidence. In the past, we have refused to extradite people who were much less important than Meng Wanzhou.
And yes I know Meng Wanzhou is only under house arrest and she’s allowed to go out in Vancouver during the daytime, while Kovrig and Spavor are in an actual prison. But is this because Canada’s more humane than China, or (more likely) because Wanzhou is a billionaire’s daughter? And what difference do the conditions of imprisonment make? All three people have been needlessly deprived of liberty. Their lives are on hold.
In the two years since our citizens were taken into Chinese custody, we have bitched and moaned, pointed our fingers at China, accused it of being a police state and arbitrarily arresting our people and violating their human rights, we’ve sent diplomats and lawyers, pressed for the Canadians’ release…
We’ve done everything except the only thing that we should do — talk to China, and agree to release Meng Wanzhou in exchange for China’s release of Kovrig and Spavor. Neither arrest should ever have happened. But we’re not going to do that, because we don’t really care, do we? We just care about enforcing Washington’s will.
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ReplyDeleteChina is our second-largest trading partner, and we cancelled free trade talks with them. Why (especially when we’re way too dependent on the US as it is)? Because “the China of 2020 isn’t the China of 2016,” said our foreign minister. Bullshit. The Canada of 2020 isn’t the Canada of 2016. Because in 2016 we followed Obama, and in 2020 we’re following China-hating Trump.
Why are we giving China a headache about Hong Kong? Why are we trying to put our feet in China’s backyard? When Quebec had a violent secessionist movement against us for decades, and when it held TWO independence referendums, what was China doing? It was minding its own business, that’s what.
Our navy is now participating with the US Navy in sailing through the Taiwan Strait, a stone’s throw away from China’s coastline. What could be more incredibly stupid and provocative? What would we say if the PLA Navy made a visit to Vancouver as a “routine freedom-of-navigation” exercise?
We’ve condemned China for its “assertive, coercive diplomacy.” What? How can diplomacy be “coercive”?
The leader of our Conservative Party, Erin O’Toole, is running for Prime Minister on an extremely anti-China platform. Why? China’s ten thousand miles away, what did it ever do to me? Wouldn’t it make more sense to run on an anti-American platform, O’Fool? Trump has taken many swipes at Canada, both verbal and actual, over the past four years.
We’re about to ban TikTok, Huawei, the Confucius Institutes — WHY? What did China DO besides what the Orange Reptile and his henchmen are accusing it of? Neo-Ottoman Turkey is invading three countries simultaneously, and we haven’t touched Turkey at all. We just tweeted it congratulations on its Independence Day! Is that because Trump is good friends with Erdogan?
All this is happening for the same reason our Conservative leader O’Fool also promised to follow Trump’s lead and move Canada’s Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Occupied Jerusalem… erasing decades of Canadian respect for international law.
I’ve figured out the foundation of Canada’s foreign policy. It’s a game of “Simon Says,” with the US being Simon.
Make no mistake. China’s done nothing to us. The Chinese didn’t change, we did. Everything was fine and quiet until 2016, when we decided to join Trump’s all-out offensive on the PRC. Just because we’re not dropping bombs or sinking ships doesn’t mean we haven’t declared war on China. We suddenly punched this country in the face, and we can’t play victim when it gets up and punches back.
The US has offered Meng Wanzhou a tricky trap to admit guilt. If she had indeed done anything wrong, how is it possible that the US hasn't taken any action, instead of just ordering Canada to have her under house arrest, after nearly two years ?
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly great to read that Ms Meng's legal team had released a statement that essentially said "NO Deal" ! Let's see what recourse that Trudeau boy boy has in order to save his face.
There are bets placed that Ms Meng will be quietly released and allowed to return back to China, and there is even speculation of a book in the offing about this shameful, disgraceful episode. Title of this new book ? " The American & Canadian Dirty Trap " wa ka ka ka.