Under house arrest, living life of luxury
Huawei executive meets visitors while in the midst of redecorating, renovating homes
At first glance, life on the 4000-block of West 28th Avenue is calm, quiet and completely characteristic of Vancouver’s sleepy Dunbar neighbourhood.
Until you look a little closer and watch a little longer, it is hard to spot clues that a resident in a home on that street sits at the heart of a highstakes diplomatic and legal row that has erupted among Canada, China, and the U.S. It is a dispute that involves international trade negotiations, economic sanctions, the freedoms of one woman and two men, and perhaps even the life of another man.
The tells begin when you notice the rotating cast of SUVs — Cadillac Escalades and a pair of Jeeps chief among them — that are parked 24 hours a day, every day, within view of the front entryway of a $5.6 million corner lot house on 28th or outside a garage in the alley around back. Inside the often idling vehicles are watchful guards employed by Lions Gate Risk Management Group, a private security firm.
Inside the home during almost all hours of the day, equipped with a GPS ankle bracelet, is Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies, who is facing U.S. charges in connection to alleged violations of trade sanctions on Iran. Meng is out on bail while she awaits her next court appearance on Feb. 6. and eventually the conclusion of an extradition process that could take months or even years.
The terms of Meng’s $10 million bail restrict her travel to Vancouver, Richmond and parts of the North Shore between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. But for two days earlier this week, the security guards hardly needed to leave their vehicles to ensure Meng did not violate those terms.
They spent their days speaking to one another through two-way radios, periodically peering through a gate at the side of the house, keeping track of the arrivals and departures of approved visitors in a log book that was often placed at the front door, and intervening when strangers approached the house.
Reporters with Bloomberg News recounted a markedly different experience they had with Meng’s guards last week on a day when Meng left her home. They said they had parked on the street and identified themselves as members of the press. One guard, wrote Bloomberg, took photos of their licence plate as another sped over in his white SUV to block their vehicle. As they did that, Meng slipped out of the house wearing a Lululemon jacket, and the latter guard accused the reporters of damaging his car before he acknowledged he’d obstructed them.
The reporters said Meng had slipped into a chauffeured black SUV when she left her home. That may have been the same chauffeured black Chevrolet Suburban that this week drove several of Meng’s family members, friends or associates to and from her home, ostensibly in prior communication with the guards outside.
When guards left their vehicles and walked to the front door it tended to be a reliable indicator that an arrival or departure was about to occur.
Meng did not appear to leave her home during daylight hours Wednesday. She stayed inside, dressed in light pants and a peach zip-up sweater, and made only brief appearances when from time to time she opened the door for her approved guests.
Even as Meng is in the midst of redecorating her home on 28th Avenue, she is renovating another home on Matthews Avenue in Shaughnessy, where a truck from a high-end closet designer was parked outside recently. Meng’s husband Xiaozong Liu has owned that property since 2016, when it was purchased for $15 million.
Meng has suggested she would like to spend some of her time stuck in Vancouver working toward a PhD in business administration at the University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business.