Huawei's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has pleaded not guilty to US charges of fraud and conspiracy as she virtually attended a hearing at a federal court in Brooklyn.
The US Department of Justice and Meng Wanzhou have agreed to defer prosecution, suggesting that the American authorities will abandon the case in December this year in exchange for the Huawei CFO agreeing to certain conditions. However, neither Huawei, nor Wanzhou, nor the US Department of Justice have so far revealed the details of the deal.
A CBC reporter said that the US Department of Justice will be withdrawing its extradition request for Meng Wanzhou as a part of the reached deal. This should allow the Huawei executive to finally leave Canada after having to stay there since her arrest in December 2018 due to charges pressed against her in the US. A new hearing on the case of her extradition to the US from Canada will take place later in the day at 5 P.M. ET.
Court documents released earlier in the day suggested that the Huawei CFO, who was accused in the US of defrauding banks and conspiring to circumvent American sanctions against Iran, had reached a deal with the US authorities to resolve the charges against her. Washington earlier claimed that Wanzhou had deliberately tricked several banks into believing that Huawei was no longer doing business with Iran or Iranian companies, while that was allegedly not the case.
Huawei and Wanzhou strongly rejected the US accusations and repeatedly branded the case against her as politically motivated. Washington's prosecution of Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's founder, added to the already high tensions between China and the US, which were strained by a trade war, accusations of cyber-attacks, and US pressure on Beijing over armaments and alleged human rights issues.