U.S. case against Huawei executive filled with gaps, her lawyers contend

VANCOUVER • The U.S. has presented a “fatally flawed” case against Meng Wanzhou that is riddled with evidentiary gaps and doesn’t meet the threshold for extradition, one of the Huawei executive’s lawyers said Friday.

Eric Gottardi began the defence team’s response in B.C. Supreme Court to a request by the United States that the senior Chinese telecom executive be extradited to face charges of fraud in a New York court.

Meng is accused of misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with tech equipment company Skycom in a 2013 presentation to HSBC, putting the bank at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. But Gottardi told the judge that the U.S., which is represented by lawyers for Canada’s attorney general in court, failed to make clear how Meng’s actions amount to fraud.

Both Meng and Huawei deny the charges.

On Friday, Meng’s team of star lawyers took aim at government lawyers’ claims that Meng’s presentation was an artful and intentional effort to distance Huawei from Skycom and reassure the bank that it was protected from sanction-related risk.

Government lawyer Robert Frater has argued Meng called the meeting after Reuters articles alleged Skycom tried to sell Hewlett-packard equipment in Iran, raising sanctions concerns.

Frater told the court HSBC was entitled to honest and forthright information about its clients in order to make decisions about the financial services it offered but was denied that right by Meng’s deception. As a result, he said HSBC suffered risks of deprivation — a fundamental element of fraud — that included possible financial loss, reputational damage and penalties.

Gottardi accused Frater of presenting “vague and shifting theories” about risks the bank faced. He said Meng’s presentation was factual and there is not a “scintilla” of evidence linking it to any decision HSBC made that might have put it at risk.

Frank Addario, another of Meng’s lawyers, said that the U.S. record of the case contains “zero evidence” that either Skycom or Huawei violated sanctions.