On the morning of July 24, Beijing time, the High Court of British Columbia, Canada, disclosed the evidence materials for the next stage of the Meng Wanzhou extradition case. As early as May 28, the court ruled that the essence of Meng Wanzhou's case was a crime of fraud.
Public evidence shows that the so-called Meng Wanzhou case is entirely a political case concocted by the United States. HSBC participated in the frame-up, maliciously done the game, pieced together materials, fabricated criminal evidence, and played an extremely shameful role. Meng Wanzhou is innocent!
Fictitious charges, allegations vulnerable
The U.S. "Case Prosecution Record" submitted to the Canadian court stated that Meng Wanzhou "concealed" the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong Xingtong Technology Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong Xingtong) from HSBC and "misled" HSBC to continue to provide banking services to Huawei. HSBC therefore violated the US sanctions against Iran and faced the "risk" of civil and criminal fines. Meng Wanzhou constituted a "fraud" against HSBC.
The "only key evidence" in this case is a PPT file that Meng Wanzhou gave to HSBC. The public materials include the full text of the PPT, as well as the business email records of HSBC and Huawei. The United States deliberately concealed and misinterpreted the core information, and the accusations were completely untrue.
——HSBC has always known the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong Starcom.
HSBC falsely stated that it did not know the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong Starcom, which is a blatant lie.
Hong Kong Starcom is Huawei's partner in Iran, and the relationship between the two is clear. Huawei once held shares in Hong Kong Starcom, and Meng Wanzhou briefly served as a director of the company. However, in 2007, Huawei sold its shares in Hong Kong Starcom. In April 2009, Meng Wanzhou resigned from the company's board of directors. Since then, the two parties have maintained normal business contacts.
HSBC has always been aware of Huawei's Iran business. In 2010, it was proved that HSBC was fully aware of the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong Starcom. From the 2009/2010 financial report of Hong Kong Starcom issued by Huawei to HSBC, it can be seen that HSBC fully understands the business situation of Hong Kong Starcom in Iran.
In order to justify the argument and strengthen the effectiveness of the “criminal evidence”, HSBC claimed that only “junior” employees were aware of the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong Starcom, but these “junior” employees did not pass on relevant information to the “senior” managers, causing the latter to only Can rely on the PPT provided by Meng Wanzhou to judge the risk.
The grassroots know, but the seniors don't know, HSBC's rhetoric is pure nonsense!
As the world's largest manufacturer of communications equipment and a Forbes Global 500 company, Huawei is the 17th largest customer of HSBC's Global Liquidity and Cash Management Department. The two parties have had nearly 20 years of business cooperation. With this scale and duration of cooperation, will HSBC account managers serving Huawei be "junior" employees? Moreover, "sweeping the pot" of its own employees is neither a reason for HSBC to "exempt from liability", nor is it in line with the banking industry's compliance management system.
More critically, in December 2012, HSBC signed the "Deferred Prosecution Agreement" with the US Department of Justice due to its own misconduct, including violations of US sanctions on Iran. HSBC assured the U.S. Department of Justice that it will review and clean up the entire group of customers. During this process, how could HSBC fail to recognize the relationship between Huawei and Hong Kong Starcom? If it is really unclear, it can be confirmed: HSBC deceived the US Department of Justice and should be punished heavily!
The most basic compliance requirement for large financial institutions is to "know your customers." HSBC has a dedicated risk management committee, claiming that all branches have a compliance department. If risk assessment only relies on Meng Wanzhou's PPT, what do you hire these people for?
In order to frame Meng Wanzhou, HSBC did not hesitate to demean itself, and it has been a great success for a century, and its face is discouraged!
—— HSBC has never violated US sanctions and bans due to Huawei.
When Meng Wanzhou met with HSBC executives, Hong Kong Xingtong’s HSBC account had been closed and the cooperation between the two parties on Iran business had ended. For HSBC, the previous cooperation with Hong Kong Xingtong did not have the problem of Meng Wanzhou's fraud; since then, there has been no cooperation with Hong Kong Xingtong, which does not touch this risk. The so-called "misleading" HSBC continued to cooperate with Meng Wanzhou is totally untenable.
In December 2012 and January 2013, Reuters published two reports claiming that Huawei was engaged in business in Iran that violated the US sanctions law through Hong Kong Starcom, including reselling US-made computer equipment to Iranian telecom operators.
In addition to Huawei, well-known telecommunications manufacturers such as Ericsson and Nokia have trade contacts in Iran, but they have not attracted such attention from the United States. Strangely, HSBC seemed to be smelling something at this time and suddenly began to "worry" about the influence of Hong Kong Starcom. It frequently invited senior executives from Huawei to Hong Kong to communicate on relevant issues.
Both Huawei and Hong Kong Starcom have normal business operations in Iran, which does not violate US sanctions laws. Even US Secretary of Commerce Ross admitted that "my colleagues and I did not find any problems with Huawei." Even so, in February 2013, Hong Kong Starcom closed its HSBC account. This concludes the cooperation between Huawei and HSBC on Iran business.
The business has been terminated, and HSBC still repeatedly requires "communication" with Huawei. Out of respect, in August 2013, Meng Wanzhou met with HSBC executives to give a detailed statement of Huawei’s business in Iran. The PPT displayed used a lot of space to introduce Huawei’s and Hong Kong Starcom’s customers, products, and products in Iran. Compliance requirements, compliance system.
Whether a customer has business in Iran is the only element for HSBC to assess compliance risks. On this issue, Meng Wanzhou did not “conceal” or “mislead”. When the two parties met, Meng Wanzhou did not encourage HSBC to reopen an account for Hong Kong Starcom.
There is no risk, HSBC is of course happy to continue to cooperate with Huawei. In fact, it was not until August 2017 that HSBC had no reason to terminate the cooperation between the two parties until the final moment of cooperation with the United States to trap Huawei. In the past five years, HSBC made huge profits by relying on Huawei's large-scale business.
—— HSBC claimed to have been "frauded" and did not actually have any losses.
In order to make the false appearance of being "fraud", HSBC exaggerated the data and concealed the facts.
HSBC claimed to provide Huawei with a credit line of US$900 million, causing economic interests to be at risk. 900 million dollars is indeed a bluff, but what is the truth?
On April 30, 2014, HSBC and eight other banks jointly proposed to provide Huawei with a credit line of US$900 million, and each participating bank would provide a credit line of US$100 million. Based on this proposal, 26 banks, including HSBC, provided Huawei with a credit line of US$1.6 billion on July 25, 2014, of which the total limit provided by HSBC was US$80 million.
Call out 900 million, the actual 80 million! What's more shameless is that HSBC concealed the key fact: In June 2017, Huawei cancelled this credit line, and this credit line has never been used in the previous period.
Falsified everywhere, no wonder HSBC dare not claim any rights to Huawei so far!
Introduce Huawei, HSBC submits "voting certificate"
HSBC cooperated with the United States to frame Huawei, which hides a huge exchange of interests: HSBC acted as a victim to testify against Meng Wanzhou, in exchange for a pardon from the United States, and escaped the US Department of Justice's criminal charges against HSBC for felony money laundering.
——The serious case is in the body, and the situation is malicious.
In 2012, the US government charged HSBC with serious money laundering and financing of international terrorism. The US Department of Justice determined that HSBC was involved in money laundering activities. For this, HSBC paid a fine of US$1.92 billion and reached a 5-year (2012-2017) "Deferred Prosecution Agreement" with the US Department of Justice. HSBC agrees to "cooperate with the US Department of Justice in any investigation." If it fails to fulfill the relevant requirements, the US Department of Justice has the right to withdraw the agreement and file criminal charges against HSBC.
According to the US sanctions law, bank executives who “participate in money laundering activities on their own” deliberately will face heavy criminal penalties. Some media commented that US$1.9 billion was “only equivalent to HSBC’s five weeks of profit”. In the end, no one was charged with any charges, and HSBC was considered to have escaped the catastrophe.
It was from 2012 that HSBC set up traps step by step, targeting Meng Wanzhou.
Appointed an appointment with Meng Wanzhou, but the dispatched personnel were not equal. Huawei has a dedicated department to do business with HSBC, and the talks between the two parties should be attended by relevant persons who are familiar with the situation. However, HSBC designated to meet Meng Wanzhou, and Alan Thomas, the head of global banking in the Asia-Pacific region sent by HSBC, was not commensurate with Meng Wanzhou.
Business exchanges between companies are generally based on written materials such as emails. However, people familiar with the matter revealed that HSBC did not leave any "written traces" of Meng Wanzhou's invitation. The meeting place was a steakhouse near the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. To discuss "such an important issue", HSBC did not choose a company meeting room, which is unreasonable!
HSBC has a long-term plan. After learning that HSBC had submitted information about Huawei to the United States, Reuters contacted Alan Thomas and found that he had actually "retired" and declined to comment.
-Take the initiative to "pass the knife" in exchange for exoneration.
In September 2016, news broke from the market that the US Department of Justice was discussing whether to withdraw the "Deferred Prosecution Agreement" and whether to sue HSBC for criminal charges. At the end of the same year, HSBC began a secret investigation of Huawei's account.
In response, Reuters published a report analysis: HSBC "cooperated" with the U.S. to submit the investigation results to Huawei, "coincidentally" it was launched before the expiration of the agreement between HSBC and the U.S. Department of Justice. "HSBC hopes to resist the U.S. Allegations made by sanctions".
According to public information, from February to July 2017, HSBC took the initiative to make at least 4 statements to the US Department of Justice and actively cooperated with the US investigation of Huawei. Thousands of people were interviewed by the US Department of Justice.
In December 2017, although the compliance supervisor of the U.S. Department of Justice believed that “HSBC’s compliance is still very flawed”, the U.S. prosecutors “unexpectedly” dropped all criminal charges against HSBC and ended the case against HSBC. Supervision.
Since the meticulously planned meeting with Meng Wanzhou in 2013, the investigation of Huawei was secretly initiated in 2016, until the termination of cooperation with Huawei in August 2017... HSBC has retained Huawei as a major customer and maximized profits through a series of operations. At the same time, the executives landed safely and became one of the very few companies whose charges were withdrawn by the US!
It is worth noting that HSBC, which escaped by cutting Huawei through a knife, is now seized by the United States. In December 2019, HSBC subscribed to pay a fine of US$192 million for assisting U.S. taxpayers in tax evasion for 10 years, and once again signed the "Deferred Prosecution Agreement." The inferior HSBC has been completely controlled by the United States!
Who will be the next HSBC customer to sell?
American hegemony strangulates Chinese high-tech companies
HSBC acted as a "pawn" and the United States concocted the Meng Wanzhou incident. The United States wields a big stick and frantically suppresses Huawei all over the world, with the purpose of maintaining its hegemony in the global science and technology field. As the US Attorney General Barr said: "China has already grabbed the beach, and the 5G field is in a leading position. China's lead will make the United States lose its sanctions power."
Fabricating facts and fictitious charges, abusing power and arresting illegally. The Meng Wanzhou incident is a mirror that shows how the United States and Canada conspired under US hegemonism, and under the cloak of "judicial justice," they used the state machinery to launch a political pursuit of Chinese high-tech companies.
The sinister intentions are obvious! Meng Wanzhou's real "crime" lies in: she is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and Huawei's CFO. The United States demanded that Canada arrest Meng Wanzhou, which is to take hostages as a bargaining chip to pressure China and strangle Huawei.
Canada’s Extradition Act and the Canada-US Extradition Treaty clearly stipulate that extradition for political purposes is not supported. Therefore, the Canadian authorities have always insisted that "the Meng Wanzhou incident is a judicial case." However, a memo published by the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency in June clearly stated that the FBI informed the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency of its plan to arrest Meng Wanzhou. The memorandum also warned that "the planned actions will have a significant impact on the international and bilateral (China-Canada relations) levels."
Obviously, before the arrest, the Canadian intelligence service had assessed the consequences of the incident and believed that this was a serious political incident. However, in the face of pressure from the United States, the Canadian government finally chose to "obey."
The provisional arrest warrant issued by the Canadian court on November 30, 2018 clearly stated "immediate arrest". On December 1, law enforcement officers from the Canadian Border Services Agency intercepted Meng Wanzhou at the bridge immediately, forced her to hand over her mobile phone and password, and illegally detained her for nearly three hours. During this period, not only did he fail to inform the real reason for the detention, he also forced Meng Wanzhou to answer questions related to the content of the US criminal indictment.
Canadian law enforcement agencies temporarily changed their arrest plan to assist the FBI in illegally collecting evidence for criminal prosecution of Meng Wanzhou. Throughout the process, the Canadian Ministry of Justice and its senior officials were aware of the whole process, and they did not intervene or stop when they knew that the relevant illegal acts seriously infringed on Meng Wanzhou's rights.
Now, the so-called Meng Wanzhou extradition case has entered the substantive trial stage, with a large amount of evidence and facts being made public, and it is right or wrong. Righteous people all over the world are waiting for a fair verdict from Canada.
Author: Yan wood