Anonymous ID: 91e043 Dec. 7, 2018, 8:45 p.m. No.4208693   🗄️.is 🔗kun

U.S. court issued Huawei CFO arrest warrant in August

 

A New York court issued an arrest warrant for Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on Aug. 22, asking she be detained to stand trial to face U.S. charges, according to documents released during her bail hearing in Canada on Friday. The documents said the United States learned on Nov. 29 that Meng was stopping over in Vancouver on her way to a third country believed to be Mexico. She was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei-tech-court/u-s-court-issued-huawei-cfo-arrest-warrant-in-august-idUSKBN1O62I6?il=0

Anonymous ID: 91e043 Dec. 7, 2018, 8:47 p.m. No.4208723   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8808 >>8825

U.S. accuses Huawei CFO of Iran sanctions cover-up; hearing adjourned

 

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s chief financial officer faces U.S. accusations that she covered up her company’s links to a firm that tried to sell equipment to Iran despite sanctions, a Canadian prosecutor said on Friday, arguing against giving her bail while she awaits extradition.

 

The case against Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the founder of Huawei [HWT.UL], stems from a 2013 Reuters report here about the company's close ties to Hong Kong-based Skycom Tech Co Ltd, which attempted to sell U.S. equipment to Iran despite U.S. and European Union bans, the prosecutor told a Vancouver court.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei/u-s-accuses-huawei-cfo-of-iran-sanctions-cover-up-hearing-adjourned-idUSKBN1O60FY?il=0

Anonymous ID: 91e043 Dec. 7, 2018, 8:55 p.m. No.4208825   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>4208723 Continued

 

U.S. accuses Huawei CFO of Iran sanctions cover-up; hearing adjourned

 

U.S. prosecutors argue that Meng was not truthful to banks who asked her about links between the two firms, the court heard on Friday. If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, the court heard, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge. No decision was reached after nearly six hours of arguments and counter-arguments, and the hearing was adjourned until Monday 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (1800 GMT).

 

Meng, 46, was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States. The arrest was on the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump met in Argentina with China’s Xi Jinping to look for ways to resolve an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The news of her arrest has roiled stock markets and drawn condemnation from Chinese authorities, although Trump and his top economic advisers have downplayed its importance to trade talks after the two leaders agreed to a truce. Friday’s court hearing was intended to decide on whether Meng can post bail or if she should be kept in detention. The prosecutor opposed bail, arguing that Meng was a high flight risk with few ties to Vancouver and that her family’s wealth would mean than even a multi-million-dollar surety would not weigh heavily should she breach conditions.

 

Meng’s lawyer, David Martin, said her prominence made it unlikely she would breach any court orders. “You can trust her,” he said. Fleeing “would humiliate and embarrass her father, whom she loves,” he argued.

 

The United States has 60 days to make a formal extradition request, which a Canadian judge will weigh to determine whether the case against Meng is strong enough. Then it is up to Canada’s justice minister to decide whether to extradite her. A spokesman for Huawei said on Friday the company has “every confidence that the Canadian and U.S. legal systems will reach the right conclusion.” The company has said it complies with all applicable export control and sanctions laws and other regulations.

 

The U.S. case against Meng involves Skycom, which had an office in Tehran and which Huawei has described as one of its “major local partners” in Iran. In January 2013, Reuters reported that Skycom, which tried to sell embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran’s largest mobile-phone operator, had much closer ties to Huawei and Meng than previously known. In 2007, a management company controlled by Huawei’s parent company held all of Skycom’s shares. At the time, Meng served as the management firm’s company secretary. Meng also served on Skycom’s board between February 2008 and April 2009, according to Skycom records filed with Hong Kong’s Companies Registry.

 

Huawei used Skycom’s Tehran office to provide mobile network equipment to several major telecommunications companies in Iran, people familiar with the company’s operations have said. Two of the sources said that technically Skycom was controlled by Iranians to comply with local law but that it effectively was run by Huawei. Huawei and Skycom were “the same,” a former Huawei employee who worked in Iran said on Friday. A Huawei spokesman told Reuters in 2013: “Huawei has established a trade compliance system which is in line with industry best practices and our business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.N. We also require our partners, such as Skycom, to make the same commitments.”

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei/u-s-accuses-huawei-cfo-of-iran-sanctions-cover-up-hearing-adjourned-idUSKBN1O60FY?il=0

Anonymous ID: 91e043 Dec. 7, 2018, 9:03 p.m. No.4208912   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Many U.S.-bound caravan migrants disperse as asylum process stalls

 

Thousands of Central American migrants spent weeks traveling north through Mexico in caravans, walking and hitching rides when possible, only for many to give up hope and turn back when they met resistance at the U.S. border. Others hopped the border fence, often directly into the hands of immigration authorities on the U.S. side, while still others dug in at temporary lodgings in Tijuana for the long process of seeking asylum from a reluctant U.S. government. As rain poured down on a former music venue in Tijuana that holds a diminished crowd of 2,500 migrants, Jessica, 18, grabbed her feverish 1-year-old daughter and took her inside to a friend while she figured out what to do with her broken tent. Jessica had traveled from El Salvador, and said she and her husband were waiting in the Barretal camp for the right moment to try to cross the border illegally. “Getting asylum is really difficult,” she said. “They ask you for a lot of evidence and it’s impossible. It’s not like they say it is.”

 

Other migrants face the same dilemma. Of 6,000 who arrived in Tijuana in the caravans last month, 1,000 have scrambled over border fences, and most of those were detained, the head of Mexico’s civil protection agency David Leon told local media on Wednesday. A further 1,000 have accepted voluntary deportation, he said, while others are living on the street outside the municipal sports center where they first arrived, or in smaller shelters. The director of the Barretal camp, Mario Medina, said he expected hundreds more to arrive within days. U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to make it harder to get asylum, but a federal court last month placed a temporary restraining order on his policy that only permitted asylum claims made at official ports of entry.

 

Under former President Barack Obama a system dubbed “metering” began, which limits how many can ask for asylum each day in Tijuana. Lawyers say Trump is using the system more aggressively to stem the flow at the port of entry. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokeswoman said the agency works with Mexico and charities to manage the flow, but denied that people were being prevented from making asylum claims. Mexico’s National Immigration Institute, which did not respond to requests for comment, has said in the past it protects migrants rights, while respecting other countries’ immigration policies. Looking after the large groups of Central Americans is a challenge for Mexico. New President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to issue more work visas and on Friday pledged to do more to improve conditions at the Barretal shelter. His government is in talks with Washington about an immigration plan, including a U.S. proposal to make asylum seekers stay in Mexico until their claim is decided, a process that can take years. Some believe that would deter people from seeking refuge.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-caravan/many-u-s-bound-caravan-migrants-disperse-as-asylum-process-stalls-idUSKBN1O62IF