B.C. court frees Meng with strict conditions
VANCOUVER— Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has been released on bail.
The decision set off a burst of applause in Vancouver’s B.C. Supreme Court, where arguments for and against her release were heard over three days.
The telecom executive was released on $10-million bail: $7 million in cash and a $3-million surety made up of property from four associates. She will remain in Vancouver, where she owns two homes, while she awaits extradition proceedings.
She is ordered to stay inside her home on West 28th Ave. from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. and be subject to 24-hour-a-day monitoring by both a live security detail and electronic ankle bracelet. She must pay for the cost of her security monitoring.
Meng must surrender her passports but is allowed to travel within Vancouver, the North Shore and a portion of Richmond excluding the airport.
Meng smiled and nodded at her husband after the judge finished reading his decision, wiping a tear from her eye. Earlier, she had told her lawyer that upon her release, her “only simple goal” is to be with her husband and daughter.
Before his decision, Justice William Ehrcke called claims that Meng had avoided travel to the U.S. to dodge a suspected investigation “speculative and without any reliable foundation.”
U.S. authorities had alleged Huawei was aware of an American investigation into its subsidiary companies, prompting Meng to steer clear of the country since April 2017.
In a statement after the decision, Huawei Canada stressed its compliance with international law, including the sanction laws of the U.S. and the EU and said it believes Meng will be treated justly by the legal system.
“We have every confidence that the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will reach a just conclusion in the following proceedings,” wrote Scott Bradley, senior vice-president of corporate affairs for Huawei Canada, in the statement. “We look forward to a timely resolution to this matter.”
The Crown questioned Tuesday whether Meng’s husband would keep her from fleeing if she were granted bail, following similar questions raised in court the day previous.
But Meng’s lawyer offered up a neighbour, two former Huawei employees who are Canadi- an citizens, and the couple’s realtor, who pledged their own home equity or savings to act as surety for Meng’s release. Meng was arrested while changing planes in Vancouver on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities. She is being sought for extradition to the United States on allegations of fraud.
However, the Crown lawyer noted the clock is ticking on the 60-day window within which the U.S. government can formally request extradition.
Meng had just spent her 10th night at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, B.C., about an hour east of Vancouver.
The first two days of the bail hearing saw the defence work hard to establish assurances that Meng would not be a flight risk if released. Monday’s proceedings ended with the Crown questioning how meaningful surety given by her husband, Liu “Carlos” Xiaozong, could be. Liu is not a Canadian resident and is currently in British Columbia on a visa set to expire on Feb. 6, 2019.
Defence lawyer David Martin said earlier Tuesday that Meng’s realtor had helped the family purchase their two multimillion-dollar homes in Vancouver and would put his own home — worth $1.8 million, according to his affidavit — up for surety, as well.
Four more individuals were then named by Martin as further guarantors of Meng’s surety.
The first two were a couple, one of whom had worked with Meng at Huawei and had known her since the mid-1990s,
Upon her release, her “only simple goal” is to be with her husband and daughter
according to the defence lawyer. They pledged $500,000 of their $1.4-million home’s equity.
The third, whose husband used to work with Meng at Huawei, pledged $850,000 of the equity from her $6-million home in South Vancouver as surety for Meng’s bail.
Aneighbour to Liu’s West 28th Ave. Vancouver home — a yoga instructor, according to Martin — also came forward to pledge $50,000 of her own retirement savings as surety.
The support for Meng’s release aligned with an unusual move Monday when Scot Filer, the CEO of Lions Gate Risk Management, pledged $1,000 of his own money as surety for Meng’s release. Lions Gate had been offered by the defence as one of two companies that would handle Meng’s security monitoring, should she be released. Filer is also an RCMP veteran of three decades.
Earlier, the judge had questioned whether Liu could act as surety when he couldn’t guarantee he will legally be able to stay in the country beyond the expiry date of his current visa. It was established in court that extradition hearings have been known to go on for months and even years.
Defence lawyer Martin said having multiple sureties in support of Meng’s release allows her husband, Liu, to act as her primary surety, despite his status as a non-resident of the country. The defence lawyer further argued there were legal avenues by which Liu’s visa might be extended.
Theoretically, Martin said, Liu could extend his stay in Canada until his passport expires in 2024 by continually renewing his temporary residency status.
Now free on bail, Meng will be expected to observe more than a dozen further conditions including random visits from police, weekly reports to a community supervisor in downtown Vancouver and attendance in court whenever required.
“I haven’t read a novel in years,” her lawyer recalled her saying, in anticipation of her release. Meng’s lawyer indicated she is interested in applying to UBC’s Sauder School of Business to study toward her PhD.
Ehrcke also directed Meng to return to court on Feb. 6, 2019 for a scheduling hearing as the court awaits a formal extradition request.