Huawei's CFO Is Being Accused of Fraud, and Her Main Defense Is a PowerPoint (theverge.com)

"Today, a bail hearing was held for Huawei's chief financial officer, who was arrested in Canada on Saturday at the request of U.S. law enforcement," reports The Verge. "The CFO, Meng Wanzhou, is facing extradition to the U.S. for conspiring to defraud banking institutions, according to the Star Vancouver." The Verge reports that her main defense is "a PowerPoint presentation that Meng had once given to explain to a bank in Hong Kong that Huawei had not violated any U.S. sanctions." From the report: Many lined up to see Meng's bail hearing today, after the extremely high-profile arrest that signified the first major break in a U.S. probe that has mostly been kept from the public. The U.S. has an arrest warrant out for Meng that was issued by a New York court on August 22nd. It has 60 days from the time of Meng's arrest on Saturday to provide Canadian courts with evidence and intent.

Meng served on the board for a Hong Kong-based company called Skycom, which allegedly did business with Iran between 2009 and 2014. U.S. banks worked with Huawei at this time, so Iran sanctions were violated indirectly, and Meng therefore committed fraud against these banks. Skycom reportedly had connections to Huawei and at the bail hearing today, Gibb-Carsley argued that Skycom was an unofficial subsidiary of Huawei's, using the same company logo. "Huawei is SkyCom," he said, "This is the crux, I say, of the alleged fraud." The hearing also examined whether Meng would be a flight risk if she was granted the $1 million bail, part of the argument Gibb-Carsley was pushing. "Defense lawyer Martin responded by explaining the Chinese emphasis on saving face, and how Meng wouldn't want her father and Huawei to look bad. Even more than that, 'she would not embarrass China itself,' Martin said."

Comments

Re:This is nonsensical

[Sarten-X]

Intoxication might also be the reason for the headline.

When you sober up, here's a different summary: Huawei has ties to a company named SkyCom. SkyCom did business with Iran, while Huawei did business with US banks, and Huawei was saying (to the banks) that they weren't doing any business with Iran. Mrs. Meng is on the board for both companies.

The real legal questions, then, are:

• 1) Is SkyCom actually Huawei? The business ties seem to be close, but whether it's considered a separate entity enough that Huawei wouldn't be responsible is a complicated question, and likely needs more evidence than is available now.
• 2) Whether Huawei (as a company) knew that SkyCom was dealing with Iran while Huawei was dealing with the US. If Huawei knew, then it's a pretty easy fraud case. If not, then there's really no case, because U.S. law is not enforceable on Chinese companies (despite the theories of the tinfoil-hat crowd).

In short, her defense is saying that Huawei didn't know about SkyCom's dealings, and they're presenting an internal slideshow as evidence that Huawei (as a company) thought it wasn't violating sanctions. Even if that slide's statement is incorrect, it may be enough to start pushing the idea that Huawei was acting in good faith while talking with the U.S. banks.

Re: Did she keep a calendar?

[Anonymous Coward]

They didn't interview Kavanaugh nor his (if you bothered seeing the testimony: incredibly brave, who knew this would probably not do anything other than damage her life, who passed a polygraph test) accuser. Not only that, they didn't interview other friends of Kavanaugh who were more than willing to say "he was lying" (as was seen on the more right wing newspapers that aren't Fox). Of course you bring up "Russia collusion", of course you're trying to project... because the FBI never bothered talking to Ford or Kavanaugh, so that "investigation" was a farce.