Huawei CFO did not hide any risk of loss to bank, fraud allegations ‘unprovable’

Toronto, Aug 18 (UNI/Sputnik) Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou did not attempt to hide any information that would have put HSBC at a risk of loss during her meeting with the bank’s top brass, the executive’s lawyer told a Canadian court.
Defense attorney Scott Fenton argued on Tuesday that the absence of a ‘quantifiable’ risk of loss to HSBC precludes deprivation, a key component of the fraud charges the executive is facing in the United States.
The US Justice Department alleges that Meng committed fraud by misleading HSBC into approving more than $100 million in transactions that contravened US sanctions on Iran from 2010 to 2014 through a Tehran-based shell company, Skycom.
At the heart of the case is a PowerPoint presentation delivered to HSBC executives by Meng, in which she assured the bank that Huawei and all its partners, including Skycom, are in compliance with US sanctions. The high-level meeting was spurred by a Reuters article, which claimed Skycom was selling prohibited US equipment to Iran.
Fenton told the court that the Canadian Justice Department’s inability to quantify the risk of fraud HSBC faced, renders the deprivation component “speculative,” without which fraud cannot be proved.
“Our position is that there is no identifiable, concrete risk of loss to HSBC… and, certainly, no conduct by Ms. Meng having the further effect of masking or hiding a risk of loss that existed, such that prevented the bank from avoiding an actual loss,” Fenton told British Columbia Supreme Court Associate Justice Heather Holmes. “We say that… there must be adamant evidence-based, non-theoretical, non-speculative either loss or risk of loss. And the absence of both – in case involving an allegation of fraud – must result in the fraud being unprovable.”
Fenton also asserted that HSBC did not face any reputational risk or any measurable loss from a theoretical reputational risk because of the PowerPoint presentation delivered by Meng.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on December 1, 2018, at Vancouver International Airport during a layover stop at the request of the US government.
The executive remains under house arrest in Vancouver, although is free to traverse the region in the company of state-imposed guards outside of her 11:00 p.m to 6:00 a.m. curfew.
The final arguments are expected to wrap up on August 20.
Holmes is expected to give her recommendation on the United States’ extradition request to AGC and Justice Minister David Lametti later in the fall. Lametti has the final say on the request and has the right to refuse extradition in exceptional circumstances.
Analysts say Lametti’s decision could hinge on developments in China, where the fate of multiple Canadians is held in the balance.
The hearings in Vancouver are being held against the backdrop of judgments in China, where a court recently upheld the death penalty for Canadian Robert Schellenberg for drug smuggling and a separate court sentenced businessman Michael Spavor to 11 years for espionage.
Spavor and Michael Kovrig, the other Canadian national held in China on espionage charges, have been in Chinese custody since December 2018. Ottawa maintains that the “arbitrary” detentions came in retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Meng.