Canadian officer never sent Meng Wanzhou’s phone information to FBI, extradition hearing is told

Claims by Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers that the electronic serial numbers of her phones were sent to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation by a Canadian police officer as part of a covert investigation were based on “speculation and surmise” and should be rejected, a government lawyer told the Huawei Technologies executive’s extradition hearing on Thursday.

The officer, former staff sergeant Ben Chang, has since retired from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and is now a casino executive in Macau. He provided the hearing with an affidavit denying that the transfer occurred, and has retained a private lawyer who says Chang will not appear for cross-examination.

Meng’s lawyers say that Chang’s denial should be disregarded and that his “unprecedented” refusal to testify bolsters their contention that Meng was the victim of a conspiracy between the FBI and Canadian police and border officers to conduct a secret criminal probe of her that abused her Canadian charter rights.

The US bid to have her sent to New York to face trial for fraud, they say, must thus be thrown out by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, which is hearing the extradition case.

But government lawyer John Gibb-Carsley, representing US interests in the case, told the court there was “no evidentiary basis” to conclude Chang ever sent the electronic serial numbers (ESNs) to the FBI. “The evidence points in a different direction,” said Gibb-Carsley.