US judge dismisses indictment against Huawei CFO

US judge dismisses indictment against Huawei CFO

2022-12-04 0 By Huawei     GOOGLE NEWS    

A US judge on Friday dismissed the indictment against Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., officially ending the criminal sanctions case that has strained US-China relations.

Meng, the managing director of the telecommunications company whose father Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei, signed an agreement with US prosecutors last year to drop the case, four years after his arrest in December 2018.

Prosecutors charged Meng with bank fraud and other crimes of deceiving HSBC Holdings Plc and other banks about Huawei’s relationship with a company operating in Iran.

Huawei pleaded not guilty to the relevant US charges. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn dismissed Meng’s indictment with prejudice, meaning it cannot be reinstated.

An attorney for Meng and a spokesperson for Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meng spent nearly three years under house arrest in Canada after his arrest at Vancouver airport. In September 2021, he signed a deferred prosecution agreement with US prosecutors, in which he admitted that Huawei had made false statements about Iranian business.

The day Donnelly approved this deal, Meng flew to his home in Shenzhen. Soon after, China released the two Canadians it was holding, and the two American brothers, who were prevented from leaving the country, were allowed to fly home.

Meng, 50, now serves as the rotating chairman and vice president and CFO of Huawei. The United States still sees Huawei as a national security threat.

On November 25, the Biden administration banned the approval of new telecommunications equipment by Huawei and China’s ZTE Corp, as they pose an “unacceptable risk” to national security. (Reported by Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Stempel of New York; edited by Sandra Maler)

Source: dailymail