Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou and the daughter of Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, has left Canada on Friday to reach her home in China after finalizing an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her.
China has released two Canadians, who were arrested shortly after Meng was taken into custody in December 2018, from Chinese jails and are on their way back to Canada. Beijing had denied that their arrests were linked.
Canada arrested Meng at Vancouver International Airport on a U.S. warrant, and indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC in 2013 about the telecommunications equipment giant’s business dealings in Iran.
Nicole Boeckmann, the acting U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, said that in entering into the agreement, “Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution.”
The agreement pertains only to Meng, and the U.S. Justice Department said it is preparing for trial against Huawei and looks forward to proving its case in court.
At a hearing in Brooklyn federal court on Friday, which Meng attended virtually from Canada, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kessler said the government would move to dismiss the charges against her if she complies with all of her obligations under the agreement, which ends in December 2022. He added that Meng will be released on a personal recognizance bond, and that the United States plans to withdraw its request to Canada for her extradition.
Meng pleaded not guilty to the charges in the hearing. When U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly later accepted the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng sighed audibly.
A Canadian judge later signed Meng’s order of discharge, vacating her bail conditions and allowing her to go free after nearly three years of house arrest.
Meng was confined to her Vancouver home at night and monitored 24/7 by private security that she paid for as part of her bail agreement.
