Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Huawei CFO arrested.


Violator

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...

Time to drop hauwei from HNIC  lol

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/huawei-iran-syria-meng-china-1.4970107

 

 

Quote

New documents link Huawei to suspected front companies in Iran, Syria

 

U.S. accuses Huawei exec of deceiving banks into transactions that may have broken sanctions on Iran

Thomson Reuters · Posted: Jan 08, 2019 1:36 PM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago
 
china-huawei-meng-wanzhou-vancouver.jpg
Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou talks with a member of her private security detail after they went into the wrong building while arriving at a parole office in Vancouver on Dec. 12, 2018. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
96 comments

The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centres on the company's suspected ties to two obscure companies. One is a telecom equipment seller that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm's owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius.

U.S. authorities allege CFO Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. Huawei has maintained the two are independent: equipment seller Skycom Tech Co. Ltd. and shell company Canicula Holdings Ltd.

But corporate filings and other documents found by Reuters in Iran and Syria show that Huawei, the world's largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment, is more closely linked to both firms than previously known.

The documents reveal that a high-level Huawei executive appears to have been appointed Skycom's Iran manager. They also show that at least three Chinese-named individuals had signing rights for both Huawei and Skycom bank accounts in Iran. Reuters also discovered that a Middle Eastern lawyer said Huawei conducted operations in Syria through Canicula.

The previously unreported ties between Huawei and the two companies could bear on the U.S. case against Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, by further undermining Huawei's claims that Skycom was merely an arms-length business partner.

Huawei, U.S. authorities assert, retained control of Skycom, using it to sell telecom equipment to Iran and move money out via the international banking system. As a result of the deception, U.S. authorities say, banks unwittingly cleared hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions that potentially violated economic sanctions Washington had in place at the time against doing business with Iran.

Meng did not respond to a request for comment by Reuters, and Huawei declined to answer questions for this story. Canicula's offices could not be reached. A Justice Department spokesman in Washington declined to comment.

Meng was released on C$10 million ($7.5 million) bail on Dec. 11 and remains in Vancouver while Washington tries to extradite her. In the United States, Meng would face charges in connection with an alleged conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge. The exact charges have not been made public.

Huawei said last month it has been given little information about the U.S. allegations "and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng." The company has described its relationship with Skycom as "a normal business partnership." It has said it has fully complied with all laws and regulations and required Skycom to do the same.

Meng's arrest on a U.S. warrant has caused an uproar in China. It comes at a time of growing trade and military tensions between Washington and Beijing, and amid worries by U.S. intelligence that Huawei's telecommunications equipment could contain "backdoors" for Chinese espionage.

Meng 'repeatedly lied,' U.S. claims

The firm has repeatedly denied such claims. Nevertheless, Australia and New Zealand recently banned Huawei from building their next generation of mobile phone networks, and British authorities have also expressed concerns.

Articles published by Reuters in 2012 and in 2013 here about Huawei, Skycom and Meng figure prominently in the U.S. case against her. Reuters reported that Skycom had offered to sell at least 1.3 million euros worth of embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator in 2010. At least 13 pages of the proposal were marked "Huawei confidential" and carried Huawei's logo.

Huawei has said neither it nor Skycom ultimately provided the U.S. equipment.

Reuters also reported numerous financial and personnel links between Huawei and Skycom, including that Meng had served on Skycom's board of directors between February 2008 and April 2009.

Several banks questioned Huawei about the Reuters articles, according to court documents filed by Canadian authorities at the request of the U.S. for Meng's bail hearing in Vancouver last month.

According to the documents, U.S. investigators allege that in responding to the banks, which weren't named, Meng and other Huawei employees "repeatedly lied" about the company's relationship with Skycom and failed to disclose that "Skycom was entirely controlled by Huawei."

U.S. authorities also allege that at a private meeting with a bank executive, in or about August 2013, Meng said Huawei had sold its shares in Skycom, but didn't disclose that the buyer was "a company also controlled by Huawei."

The court documents allege that Huawei told the executive's bank that the Chinese company had sold its shares in Skycom in 2009 — the same year Meng stepped down from Skycom's board. Skycom's buyer wasn't identified in the documents.

But Skycom records filed in Hong Kong, where the company was registered, show that its shares were transferred in November 2007 to Canicula, which was registered in Mauritius in 2006. Canicula continued to hold Skycom shares for about a decade, Skycom records show.

A "Summary of Facts" filed by U.S. authorities for Meng's Canadian bail hearing states: "Documents and email records show that persons listed as 'Managing Directors' for Skycom were Huawei employees." None of those individuals were named.

A company record filed by Skycom in Iran that was entered in the Iranian registry in December 2011 states that a "Shi Yaohong" had been elected as manager of Skycom's Iran branch for two years. Huawei employs an executive named Shi Yaohong.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Shi was named Huawei's "President Middle East Region" in June 2012. An Emirates News Agency press release identified him in November 2010 as "President of Huawei Etisalat Key Account." Etisalat is a major Middle Eastern telecommunications group and a Huawei partner.

Shi, now president of Huawei's software business unit, hung up the phone when Reuters asked him about his relationship with Skycom.

The Syrian connection

Many corporate records filed by Skycom in Iran list signatories for its bank accounts in the country. Most of the names are Chinese; at least three of the individuals had signing rights for both Skycom and Huawei bank accounts. (One of the names is listed in the Iranian registry with two slightly different spellings but has the same passport number.) U.S. authorities allege in the court documents filed in Canada that Huawei employees were signatories on Skycom bank accounts between 2007 and 2013.

Records in Hong Kong show that Skycom was voluntarily liquidated in June 2017 and that Canicula was paid about $132,000 as part of the resolution. The liquidator, Chan Leung Lee of BDO Ltd. in Hong Kong, declined to comment.

The Financial Services Commission in Mauritius, where Canicula remains registered, declined to release any of its records to Reuters, saying they were confidential.

Until two years ago, Canicula had an office in Syria, another country that has been subject to U.S. and European Union sanctions. In May 2014, a Middle Eastern business website called Aliqtisadi.com published a brief article about the dissolution of a Huawei company in Syria that specialized in automated teller machine (ATM) equipment. Osama Karawani, an attorney who was identified as the appointed liquidator, wrote a letter asking for a correction, stating that the article had caused "serious damage" to Huawei.

Karawani said the article suggested that Huawei itself had been dissolved, not just the ATM company. In his letter, which was linked to on the Aliqtisadi website, he said Huawei was still in business.

"Huawei was never dissolved," he wrote, adding that it "has been and is still operating in Syria through several companies which are Huawei Technologies Ltd and Canicula Holdings Ltd." Huawei Technologies is one of Huawei's main operating companies.

Karawani didn't respond to emailed questions from Reuters about Canicula.

U.S. investigators are aware of Canicula's connection to Syria, according to a person familiar with the probe. Canicula had an office in Damascus and operated in Syria on behalf of Huawei, another person said.

That person said Canicula's customers there included three major telecommunications companies. One is MTN Syria, controlled by South Africa's MTN Group Ltd, which has mobile phone operations in both Syria and Iran. MTN has a joint venture in Iran — MTN Irancell — that is also a Huawei customer. MTN advised Huawei on setting up the structure of Skycom's office in Iran, according to another source familiar with the matter.

"Skycom was just a front" for Huawei, the person said.

An official with MTN said no one at the company was available to comment.

In December 2017, a notice was placed in a Syrian newspaper by "the General Director of the branch of the company Canicula Ltd." He was not named. It announced that Canicula had "totally stopped operating" in Syria two months before. No explanation was given.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's sad how Canada is just willing to bow down the US and be used. An yes, I know about the extradition treaty, but its dumbfounding. 

 

It seems that many people here are just willing to accept the US's bullying on the international level. The world is bigger than the United States. So what if countries do business with Iran? And Spying??!? Really ??!? It's so rich coming from the US to complain about cellular devices spying on people. Forgetting what the NSA does with apple? Or literally every other US company? Oh so now when China does it everyone looses their minds cuz 'evil chinese hUrdd DurR'

 

What a joke.  

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The F@$%ing Chinese are pathetic. @smokes you praise this dump of a nation meanwhile it's basically the Soviet Union. I say we put that woman in jail for life and detain all their diplomats. We should also stop buying all their slave labour dollar store junk.

 

China temporarily detains Canadian family as Huawei spat escalates

A Canadian woman whose pro-democracy father is imprisoned in China was detained and intimidated by Chinese security authorities while transiting through Beijing International Airport on Wednesday.

The detention of Ti-Anna Wang and her infant daughter and husband appears to be the latest reprisal against Canadians in a Chinese campaign to force Canada to allow a senior executive of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to return home. Ms. Wang’s family was en route from Seoul to Toronto on a connecting flight through Beijing International Airport when six police officers boarded the aircraft.

“I was escorted off, detained with my daughter and separated from my husband for almost two hours,” Ms. Wang said in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. “It was a shocking, terrifying and senseless ordeal with no purpose but to bully, punish and intimidate me and my family.”

 

In a phone call with The Globe from Seoul, Ms. Wang described the Chinese authorities as “unnecessarily cruel,” saying they wouldn’t even allow her to get the diaper bag from her husband to change her 11-month-old daughter.

Ms. Wang’s detention follows the Dec. 1 arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States on allegations of banking fraud related to U.S. sanctions against Iran.

China has now held two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, for more than a month on allegations of endangering national security and sentenced Canadian Robert Schellenberg on Monday to death for drug smuggling. China has interrogated Mr. Kovrig, a former diplomat, about his past work in China, prompting a protest from Ottawa that Beijing is violating the rules of diplomatic immunity. Canadian teacher Sarah McIver was also detained, but has been released.

 

Calling China’s behaviour “a threat to all countries,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Wednesday she welcomes the support Canada is receiving from its allies as it opposes China’s treatment of Canadian citizens.

“Our government has been energetically reaching out to our allies and explaining that the arbitrary detentions of Canadians are not just about Canada. They represent a way of behaving which is a threat to all countries,” Ms. Freeland said.

 

The Chinese government has discounted Ottawa’s efforts to marshal international support against Beijing’s treatment of the Canadians.

“I can tell you for sure that we are not worried at all,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing on Wednesday. Although most Group of Seven G7 countries, and the European Union, have issued statements supportive of the Canadian position, that doesn’t amount to much, she said.

“You can count by the fingers of your hand the few allies of Canada that chose to side with it on this issue. These several countries can by no means represent the entire international community.”

Ms. Wang, who wasn’t allowed to use her phone or computer or to contact the Canadian embassy, said Chinese officials told her she was not allowed to return to Canada and put her on a flight back to South Korea.

“I asked repeatedly why I couldn’t just return to Canada, as I had no intention of staying in China and [was] simply transiting,” she said. “They said they were investigating my case but they wouldn’t give me any information.”

Ms. Wang was barred from entering China last week when she arrived at Hangzhou airport even though she had obtained a visa in August to visit her dissident father, who is in serious ill health from several debilitating strokes suffered while in solitary confinement. Her father is a Chinese national who was kidnapped in Vietnam in 2002 and smuggled to China, where he was sentenced to life in prison on espionage and terrorism charges.

 

Ms. Wang said she believes China was punishing her in retaliation for the dispute with Canada and the fact that she had spoken to The Globe last week about being denied into the country to visit her father.

“It felt like a very deliberate retaliation,” she said. “I was terrified because this is a country with no rule of law and I had no idea what was going to happen to me.”

Times Wang, Ti-Anna’s brother who was allowed to enter China on a U.S. passport and visit his father, said the Chinese authorities “were intimidating and aggressive, unlike last week.”

“It seems clear that something changed since last week and that they are trying to send a message,” he said. It had the air of reprisal, he said, for the public criticism directed at China after Ms. Wang described her eviction from the country.

China has taken issue with the arrest last month of Ms. Meng, who was released on bail in Vancouver and is facing an independent judicial hearing. China called her detention “vile, unconscionable and evil.”

But former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler said those words "define and describe China’s hostage diplomacy ever since – including its detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor and the arbitrarily cruel death sentence of Robert Schellenberg.”

 

“But nothing exposes and unmasks China’s contempt for the rule of law, in China as well as in Canada, and its own ‘vile, unconscionable and evil’ conduct than its cruel and inhumane treatment of Ti-Anna Wang and her infant daughter,” Mr. Cotler, now the head of Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, said in an e-mail to The Globe.

Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole said the treatment of Ms. Wang is “very, very concerning because it is now a pattern.”

He urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to phone Chinese President Xi Jinping and attempt to resolve the diplomatic dispute. He noted that Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, the father of Ms. Meng, has said his daughter was treated “kindly” by Canadians.

“These are the things the Prime Minister could be making in a person-to-person discussion of the situation with the President,” Mr. O’Toole said. “Even to the point of saying that he will personally keep a watching brief on the process in Canada and that he can be assured our justice system is the most fair in the world.”

Mr. Trudeau and his cabinet met privately with six senior ambassadors Wednesday evening as Canada mounts an international campaign to gain global allies in its diplomatic battle with China.

John McCallum, Canada’s ambassador to China and a former member of the Trudeau cabinet, said Wednesday evening that he has been in contact with Chinese authorities and his focus is on the safety of the three Canadians. “My first priority by far is to do everything in my capacity to secure the release of the two Michaels as quickly as possible and to help to save the life of Mr. Schellenberg,” he said.

Federal ministers are gathered in Sherbrooke for three days of meetings ahead of Parliament’s return on Jan. 28.

Ms. Freeland addressed Canada’s strained diplomatic relations Wednesday during a stop in Repentigny, Que. “This is a difficult moment in our relationship with China,” she told reporters.

Ms. Freeland said Canada is grateful for the support it has received in recent days from Germany, Estonia, France, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom Britain and the United States. She said she will be raising China’s actions with international political and business leaders next week when she attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Australia, too, has spoken out on multiple occasions, with acting foreign minister Simon Birmingham commenting this week on the death sentence for Mr. Schellenberg. “We expect at a level of principle that not only the death penalty should not be applied but also wherever people are in trouble the rule of law ought to be applied fairly,” he said.

Ms. Hua, the Chinese spokesperson, took aim at those comments, pointing out that the Chinese court found Mr. Schellenberg guilty of attempting to smuggle drugs to Australia.

“I find it rather odd,” Ms. Hua said. “Does the Australian side wish to see this large batch of drugs arrive in its land and endanger its people? This Australian official owes an explanation to his people.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-six-ambassadors-to-brief-trudeau-federal-cabinet-amid-strained/

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/10/2019 at 7:25 AM, TheMohammadman said:

It's sad how Canada is just willing to bow down the US and be used. An yes, I know about the extradition treaty, but its dumbfounding. 

These two lines contradict each other. If you know about the extradition treaty and know how extradition treaties work, there is no bowing down or any such hullabaloo. 

On 1/10/2019 at 7:25 AM, TheMohammadman said:

It seems that many people here are just willing to accept the US's bullying on the international level.

There is nothing to accept. They file charges in their court and ask us to arrest foreign national on our soil and we are obligated to do so. Vice versa for them and they also do so. 

On 1/10/2019 at 7:25 AM, TheMohammadman said:

The world is bigger than the United States. So what if countries do business with Iran? And Spying??!? Really ??!? It's so rich coming from the US to complain about cellular devices spying on people. Forgetting what the NSA does with apple? Or literally every other US company? Oh so now when China does it everyone looses their minds cuz 'evil chinese hUrdd DurR'

 

What a joke.  

Um yes, a nation with one of the worst human rights record on the planet, that isn't a democracy and has a constitution built-in for government interference in their justice system leading to kangaroo courts, is going to be held at a much lower threshold for spying and contempt. Duh. 

  • Upvote 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/16/2019 at 9:06 PM, Ryan Strome said:

The F@$%ing Chinese are pathetic. @smokes you praise this dump of a nation meanwhile it's basically the Soviet Union. I say we put that woman in jail for life and detain all their diplomats. We should also stop buying all their slave labour dollar store junk.

 

I'm going to bet everything around you, including the clothes you're wearing, were made in China. The phone or PC you're posting from was likely made in China too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, 250Integra said:

I'm going to bet everything around you, including the clothes you're wearing, were made in China. The phone or PC you're posting from was likely made in China too.

Great response. 

But at least you get my point you just have no desire to fix the problem. 

If the Western world stopped buying Chinese slave labour goods they would be bankrupt.

Edited by Ryan Strome
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Ryan Strome said:

Great response. 

But at least you get my point you just have no desire to fix the problem. 

If Western world buying Chinese slave labour goods they would be bankrupt.

I assume you meant "stop buying". :) 

 

I try to avoid their stuff as much as possible.  It's not easy, but every little bit helps, right?

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

U.S. charges Chinese tech giant Huawei, top executive

 
 
Michael Balsamo
57 mins ago
 
 
Trudeau says ‘rule of law’ will be followed in Huawei case

The Canadian Press

 

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Justice is formally levelling 23 criminal charges against Chinese tech juggernaut Huawei Technologies, multiple subsidiaries and chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.

The charges allege, among other things, that the company misrepresented its ownership of a Hong Kong-based subsidiary to circumvent American sanctions against Iran, and stole telecommunications technology, trade secrets and equipment from U.S. cell provider T-Mobile USA.

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is escorted by her private security detail while arriving at a parole office, in Vancouver, on Wednesday December 12, 2018.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is escorted by her private security detail while arriving at a parole office, in Vancouver, on Wednesday December 12, 2018. 

 

Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker says the department is proceeding with its extradition efforts against Meng, who was detained Dec. 1 at the request of the U.S. upon arriving at the airport in Vancouver. Whitaker and FBI director Christopher Wray both thanked Canadian officials for their help.

 

Meng's arrest almost two months ago touched off an ongoing diplomatic furor that resulted Sunday in the firing of John McCallum as Canada's ambassador to China after he publicly expressed confidence in her ability to fight extradition to the United States.

 

News of the charges comes just as the White House is making plans for a team of high-level economic advisers to meet a delegation from China later this week to talk trade between the two countries.

 

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will take part in the two days of talks beginning Wednesday, along with the president's economic adviser Larry Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders says the two developments are unrelated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Violator said:

Huawei CFO files civil claim against members of CBSA, RCMP

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has filed a civil claim alleging several Canadian agencies violated her constitutional rights.

 

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/politics/2019/3/3/1_4320414.html

 

Is she a Canadian citizen?

 

Correct me if I am wrong but does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply to just Canadian Citizens or anyone present in Canada?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, prix57 said:

Is she a Canadian citizen?

 

Correct me if I am wrong but does the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply to just Canadian Citizens or anyone present in Canada?

Im confused about that question aswell im assuming anyone on canadian soil is judged under those rights.

 

Mabye the resident ambulance chaser can clarify this 

 

@Jimmy McGill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Violator said:

Im confused about that question aswell im assuming anyone on canadian soil is judged under those rights.

 

Mabye the resident ambulance chaser can clarify this 

 

@Jimmy McGill

I'll have you know I'd never chase an ambulance. I'd pay an intern to do that.

 

But yes the charter does apply to anyone physically present in Canada, including non-citizens.

  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

China harvested organs from political prisoners on substantial scale, says tribunal

 

Forced harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience in China has been “substantial,” says an interim judgment of an independent “people’s tribunal” set up to determine whether the country’s transplantation practices breached international criminal law.

The former English judge Geoffrey Nice QC, the tribunal’s chair, said after a three day evidence gathering session, “We, the tribunal members, are all certain, unanimously, beyond reasonable doubt, that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practised for a substantial period of time, involving a very substantial number of victims . . . by state organised or approved organisations or individuals.”

The tribunal found that the practices breached the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including articles 3 (right to life), 6 (recognition as a person before the law), 7 (equality before the law), 9 (not to be subject to arbitrary arrest), 10 (full equality to a fair and public …

CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/asia/china-organ-harvesting/index.html

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...