Prosecutors omitted key facts, say Meng's lawyers

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is raising a new argument in a Canadian court in a bid to fight extradition to the United States on bank fraud charges, court documents released on Monday showed.

Meng’s lawyers claim the case that the United States submitted to Canada is “so replete with intentional and reckless error” that it violates her rights.

Meng, 48, was detained in Vancouver on December 1, 2018, at the request of the United States, where she is charged with bank fraud and accused of misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business in Iran.

Meng, the daughter of billionaire Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition. A PowerPoint presentation that Meng gave to a HSBC banker in Hong Kong in 2013 has been cited as key evidence against her. In that presentation, Meng said that Skycom Tech Co — a firm that operated in Iran — was “a business partner of Huawei,” while the United States has described it as an unofficial subsidiary.

Meng’s lawyers argued the prosecutors omitted key disclosures Meng made in the presentation regarding Huawei’s ongoing business operations in Iran and that Skycom worked with Huawei in sales and service in Iran.

Without those disclosures, the lawyers said, the US summary of the PowerPoint was “materially misleading.”

Meng’s lawyers also pointed out that the case said only “junior” HSBC employees knew of the relationship between Huawei and Skycom. Meng’s lawyers said it is implausible that HSBC senior management was unaware of the relationship, given Huawei was one of HSBC’s biggest clients.

The lawyers also said that a US$900 million credit facility that the United States said HSBC had extended to Huawei did not exist. Rather Huawei was in a US$1.6 billion credit arrangement with 26 banks, and HSBC’s total contribution was limited to US$80 million, they argued.

In addition, the lawyers said, the credit facility was never drawn on by Huawei and was canceled in June 2017.

Last month, a Canadian judge allowed the extradition case to continue, rejecting defense arguments that the US charges against Meng do not constitute crimes in Canada.