Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou will be released and allowed to return to China, a move that follows a settlement with the US government over fraud allegations.
The daughter of the founder of a Chinese technology company, she was arrested in Canada in December 2018 as the United States sought to extradite her on bank fraud charges.
Those arrests led Chinese authorities to detain Canadian businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig. China has repeatedly denied that the cases are linked to Meng.
CNBC International reported on Friday evening (24/9/2021), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the two men had been released and were returning from China.
At the time, Meng admitted that he was not guilty of the charges against him. However, part of the agreement stipulates that Meng remains responsible for his central role in the scheme to defraud global financial institutions. This was confirmed by the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Nicole Boeckmann, in a statement.
Meng admitted to making “multiple false statements” as Huawei’s chief financial officer about the company’s operations in Iran in conversations with executives at a financial institution, Boeckmann said. The government says she did this to further Huawei’s business relationship with the company. Boeckmann said the confessions support the core allegations against Meng.
A news report also linked Hong Kong-based HSBC to the case. However, the bank previously said the U.S. Justice Department had confirmed it was not under investigation in the case.
A Huawei spokesperson has consistently declined to comment on the matter. On another occasion, a lawyer representing Meng said he was satisfied with the settlement.
“He has not entered a plea and we hope the charges will be dismissed with prejudice after 14 months,” said attorney William W. Taylor III. “Now he will be free to go home to his family.”
At a news conference Friday night, Trudeau said Kovrig and Spavor had been through an ordeal. In August, China sentenced Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage. Kovrig had not been convicted before his release.
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