The Daily Courier

Chinese telecom executive faces allegation­s of fraud

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VANCOUVER (CP) — A senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei is facing allegation­s of fraud by using a subsidiary to violate U.S. trade sanctions against Iran in a case that shook world stock markets this week.

A federal prosecutor told a bail hearing for Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Friday that the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologi­es is wanted in the United States to face criminal proceeding­s, alleging Huawei used subsidiary Skycom to do business with Iran.

John Gibb-Carsley said Meng is alleged to have said Huawei and Skycom were separate companies in a meeting with an unnamed financial institutio­n, misleading an executive with that institutio­n and putting it at risk.

“Skycom was Huawei. This is the alleged fraud,” said Gibb-Carsley, representi­ng the Attorney General of Canada. “Skycom employees were Huawei employees.”

None of the allegation­s have been proven in court.

The company has said it is not aware of any wrongdoing by Meng, and her lawyer, David Martin, told the B.C. Supreme Court no charge or indictment has been filed against his client, just a warrant.

He said one of the glaring deficienci­es in the allegation­s is that the summary of the case doesn’t differenti­ate between time periods.

Martin said at the meeting Meng had with a bank that was referred to in a story by Reuters, she explained Huawei owned Skycom for a period of time but it sold the company in 2009. Martin told the court the PowerPoint presentati­on his client delivered to the bank is supposed to be evidence of fraud, but that claim is “prepostero­us.”

Huawei sold Skycom before the sanctions became law in the United States under president Barack Obama in 2010, he said.

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