HSBC Documents Contradict Case for Meng Extradition, Lawyer Says

(Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc.’s internal documents contradict U.S. claims that make up the key assertion in the country’s effort to have Huawei Technologies Co.’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou extradited from Canada to face fraud charges in New York, Meng’s lawyers told a British Columbia court.

Meng, 49, is accused of lying to HSBC about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, a company that did business in Iran in violation of U.S. trade sanctions. U.S. prosecutors claim she mislead HSBC and exposed the bank to criminal liability for sanctions violations.

“HSBC’s own records reflected Huawei’s continued control over Skycom, including the fact that Skycom held accounts at HSBC that were controlled by Huawei,” Meng’s lawyer Mark Sandler said at a hearing Tuesday.

HSBC conducted internal risk assessments fully cognizant of those facts, Sandler said. Evidence shows that Skycom’s financial statements were even included in a report on the Huawei account to HSBC’s head office, he said.

“We’re now in a different universe,” Sandler said of the Canadian court’s understanding of the case. “There is no plausible case for committal.”

Meng seeks to have the Canadian court throw out the U.S. handover request. Her defense is pushing to have the HSBC documents admitted as evidence, saying the stash of records and emails show that the U.S. allegations, which the Canadian court is being asked to rely on, are false and misleading. If the court admits the documents, she will be able to use them in a final round of extradition hearings scheduled for August.

Meng’s lawyers obtained the documents from HSBC under a deal overseen by a Hong Kong court in April.

Meng, the eldest daughter of Huawei’s billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei -- has been detained in Vancouver since her arrest at the airport in December 2018. She has been living under house arrest in one of two homes her family owns in the city.

Lawyers for the Attorney General of Canada, acting on behalf of the U.S. in the case, have yet to respond to the submissions.

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