The US decided to drop charges against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou
As a reminder, she was arrested back in 2018, which worsened the relationship between two North American countries and China. Meng did agree on a deal with the prosecutors last year, though, for the charges to be dismissed on December 2022, which is what happened. This is what Brooklyn US Attorney, Carolyn Pokorny said in a letter to US District Judge, Ann Donnelly: “the government respectfully moves to dismiss the third superseding indictment in this case as to defendant Wanzhou Meng.” As a reminder, Meng Wanzhou was accused of bank fraud and some other crimes. She was accused of misleading HSBC Holdings Plc about the company’s business in Iran, to obtain banking services in violation of US sanctions. Meng Wanzhou, as part of this deal for the charges to be dropped, agreed that she made false statements about the company’s Iran business in a 2013 meeting with a bank executive.
Huawei is not in the clear, though
It is worth noting that Huawei is still charged in this case. No trial date has been yet, though. A status conference is scheduled for February 7, so we’ll hopefully get more information. Do note that the charges against Huawei are more vast, though. They include everything from bank fraud to conspiracy to steal trade secrets from US technology companies. Obstructing justice was also mentioned. Huawei did plead “not guilty”, though. It is no secret that Huawei did get added to a US trade-ban list, which restricted US suppliers from doing business with Huawei. That did hurt Huawei quite a bit over the years. It is also a reason why the company’s devices ship without Google services. We’ll hopefully get more information in the near future, as we’re waiting for the trial date to be set.
