HSBC Doesn't Have to Give Documents to Huawei CFO, U.K. Judge Says -- 2nd Update
19 Febrero 2021 - 06:22AM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Simon Clark
HSBC Holdings PLC doesn't have to hand over banking documents
requested by Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng
Wanzhou as part of her effort to resist a U.S. extradition order, a
judge in London's High Court said.
Ms. Meng, who filed a lawsuit at the U.K. court, was arrested by
Canadian police in 2018 on behalf of the U.S. Department of
Justice, which has accused her in a criminal case of misleading
HSBC about Huawei's business ties in Iran while the country was
subject to U.S. sanctions.
Huawei is one of China's top companies and a global leader in
telecommunications equipment. Ms. Meng asked the court in London,
where HSBC is based, to obtain documents that her lawyers said
would prove she didn't mislead the bank. She is currently living in
Vancouver under bail terms requiring her to wear an ankle monitor
and be supervised by court-appointed security.
"I have no jurisdiction to make the order sought," Judge Michael
Fordham said Friday.
An HSBC spokeswoman said the bank was pleased with the court's
ruling, saying the bank wasn't party to the underlying U.S. case or
the extradition request in Canada.
A Huawei spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment.
The U.S. case against Ms. Meng has further inflamed its
relations with China and deepened HSBC's entanglement in the
geopolitical standoff. The bank, which competes with the likes of
Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., services multinational
companies, but makes most of its profit in Hong Kong and China.
Last year, HSBC supported Beijing's imposition of a new security
law in Hong Kong. The move angered U.S. and U.K. politicians who
said it undermined an agreement to give the city a high degree of
autonomy after the British handed it back to China in 1997.
As the controversy over the national security law peaked last
summer, Chinese state media accused HSBC of setting Huawei up in
Ms. Meng's case. The reports forced HSBC to issue a statement
saying it wasn't involved in the U.S.'s decision to investigate
Huawei or to arrest Ms. Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei's
founder, Ren Zhengfei.
Ms. Meng's situation is seen by many in China as an attempt by
Washington to slow the country's global ascent. Her arrest also
touched off a major diplomatic standoff with Canada, with two
Canadians, including a diplomat on leave from his post, detained in
China and charged with espionage. China has denied any direct links
between the arrests and Ms. Meng's case.
HSBC handed documents to the U.S. in the Huawei case in 2016. At
the time, it was being monitored by the Justice Department as part
of a 2012 settlement over sanctions breaches and money laundering.
Huawei lawyers have alleged that the Justice Department's grip on
the bank gave HSBC a motive to present Huawei as the mastermind of
its sanctions violations. HSBC has denied that.
The U.S. has accused Ms. Meng of misrepresenting the
relationship between Huawei and a company called Skycom Tech Co.,
which did business in Iran, to HSBC, including in a PowerPoint
presentation handed to an HSBC banker in a Hong Kong restaurant in
August 2013. The U.S. has alleged that HSBC subsequently relied on
the presentation to clear millions of dollars in transactions that
potentially violated U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Ms. Meng's lawyers told a Canadian court last year that the U.S.
made "reckless misstatements" about her 2013 presentation, which
they said identified Skycom as a partner that conducts business
activities in Iran. Ms. Meng wanted HSBC to hand over documents
which mention Huawei, Skycom or the PowerPoint presentation.
"Knowledge of the true relationship between Huawei and Skycom
was in fact shared by HSBC's senior executives," Ms. Meng's lawyers
said in a filing to the London court.
HSBC opposed Ms. Meng's request, arguing that the London High
Court doesn't have jurisdiction to make the order sought and the
information she wanted may include documents held by HSBC units in
different places around the world. A lawyer for the bank said at a
court hearing last week that responding to the request could take
"several months."
A court hearing in Canada about Ms. Meng's potential extradition
is scheduled for March.
Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 19, 2021 07:07 ET (12:07 GMT)
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