ExclusiveHuawei’s ties with Iran known to HSBC before Meng Wanzhou arrest, documents show

Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is currently fighting extradition to the United States in the Canadian courts

Executive is accused of making a fraudulent presentation to the bank about the Chinese tech giant’s business dealings in Iran

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Documents seen by the South China Morning Post show communications between HSBC staff and Huawei employees about the bank accounts of a company known as Skycom Tech. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 10:00pm, 17 Jan 2020Updated: 5:54am, 25 Dec 2021

The Canadian extradition proceedings of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou hinge on allegations she made a fraudulent presentation to HSBC in 2013 over the technology giant’s business ties in Iran, but recently revealed documents show the bank had been aware of Huawei’s business relationships in the Middle Eastern country for years earlier.

The documents seen by the South China Morning Post show communications between HSBC staff and Huawei employees about the bank accounts of a company known as Skycom Tech.

The documents are dated from as early as 2010. Meng made her presentation to the bank in August 2013.

The existence of the documents could raise questions about allegations that Meng – the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei – had misled HSBC about Huawei’s financial connections with Skycom and the latter’s business in Iran, which Washington alleges violated US sanctions.

The documents, dated between 2010 and 2012, do not address the allegation that Meng provided false information to HSBC, only that the global bank had knowledge of the business relationship between Huawei and Skycom.

However, this points to a crucial issue in the ongoing legal battle in Canada to extradite Meng to the United States where she is likely to face charges of bank and wire fraud in violation of US sanctions. If convicted, she could face up to 30 years in prison on some of the charges. The legal battle has become one of the most widely watched cases in the world, also causing a rapid deterioration in the bilateral relationship between Beijing and Ottawa.

The British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver will hear the case on January 20.