Huawei delivers memo proving distortion and omission

Lawyers for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co, claimed US authorities and HSBC are trying to use a case outline with omissions and distortions to mislead a Canadian court, which oversees Meng's extradition hearing.

The lawyers made the remarks in a memo, which was made public after a hearing in Vancouver to discuss the management of Meng's extradition case on Monday.

In the memo, Meng's lawyers said the allegations of "deliberate and/or reckless misstatements of fact and material omissions" in the official record of the case are so serious that extradition proceedings against Meng should be tossed.

Meng's lawyers claim the record provided to the court is incomplete and inaccurate in several aspects, including the summary of the PowerPoint presentation Meng is alleged to have given to a HSBC executive.

Meng is accused of lying to an HSBC executive in Hong Kong in August 2013 about Huawei's relationship with Skycom, a company which the US government charged violated its sanctions on technology sales to Iran.

But the defense team says the summary provided to the court is "grossly misleading" because it omitted references to critical disclosures Meng made regarding Huawei's ongoing business operations in Iran.

They argued the omissions show Meng gave the bank the facts it needed to assess the risk of doing business with Huawei.

Also, Meng's lawyers questioned claims in the record that only "junior" HSBC employees knew about the relationship between Huawei and Skycom, but "senior" employees did not know.

"It is inconceivable that any decision to modify or terminate HSBC's relationship with Skycom or Huawei would not have been reviewed by the most senior management at HSBC," Meng's lawyers said.

According to the defense team, "that high-level review, which would have preceded the closing of the Skycom account, would necessarily have revealed the interconnectedness of the Huawei and Skycom accounts."

Comments from HSBC are not immediately available. The Canadian court did not make any decision on Monday, but set the next hearing for June 23.

Canadia media outlet CBC reported Meng's lawyers also pointed to the fact HSBC had its own deferred prosecution agreement at the time with the US Department of Justice, which saw the bank pay a $1.9 billion fine for misconduct. As part of that deal, HSBC promised to adopt American anti-money laundering standards.

The defense lawyers said any potential violation of that agreement by a client would have been addressed by the most senior people at HSBC, not junior employees.

The defense team also accused the US of claiming HSBC extended $900 million to Huawei following Meng's alleged lies, when the bank's portion of that amount was actually $80 million, and the $900 million was never drawn by Huawei.