United States case against Huawei CFO ‘fatally flawed’, say lawyers

Lawyers for a senior executive for Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies attacked the case against her as “fatally flawed” and full of “shifting theories” during an extradition hearing Friday.

Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder and the company’s chief financial officer, at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018. The US wants her extradited to face fraud charges.

Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise. The US accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of US sanctions.

It says Meng, 49, committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran. The lengthy extradition proceeding is entering the committal phase which involves arguments over the US government’s request to extradite Meng. Defence lawyer Eric Gottardi said fraud cases are normally straightforward, with a lie being told that results in someone losing money.