Huawei founder’s daughter, company CFO arrested in Canada

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is facing extradition to the U.S. after she was arrested in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday. Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, holds the positions of CFO and deputy chairman at the company. Her bail hearing has been set for Friday.

Huawei released a statement Thursday morning stating that Meng was provisionally detained by the Canadian Authorities on behalf of the U.S., which is seeking her extradition to face unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York.

The arrest is thought to stem from violations of U.S. sanctions, according to various reports. Huawei’s cross-town rival ZTE Corp. has repeatedly been found guilty of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

In a statement, Huawei acknowledged the detention and extradition request by the US government.

“Recently, our corporate CFO, Ms Meng Wanzhou, was provisionally detained by the Canadian Authorities on behalf of the United States of America, which seeks the extradition of Ms Meng Wanzhou to face unspecified charges in the Eastern District of New York, when she was transferring flights in Canada.

“The company has been provided very little information regarding the charges and is not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms Meng. The company believes the Canadian and US legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion,” Huawei said.

“Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations where it operates, including applicable export control and sanction laws and regulations of the UN, US, and EU,” the company said.

In April this year, the Commerce Department found ZTE had violated a settlement reached in 2017.

ZTE was then subjected to sanctions after the US government determined that it had first attempted to trade illegally with Iran and North Korea, and then subsequently failed to follow through on remedies imposed by the US Department of Commerce.

US firms were banned from selling microchips and other components to ZTE, crippling and nearly killing the company until the ban was lifted on the orders of US President Donald Trump after he was contacted by the Chinese government. As part of a new agreement to lift the ban, ZTE paid US$1.4 billion in penalties, reformed its management and installed US-appointed compliance officers.

Meng’s arrest occurred on the same day that Xi was meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. The two leaders were said to have reached a cease-fire in the trade war between the two countries, but in the days that followed the meeting, Chinese and U.S. officials have been issuing inconsistent details about the deal they had reached.

Founded by Ren in 1987, Huawei has grown to become the world’s largest provider of telecom equipment, and the world’s No. 2 seller of smartphones. The company reported that is total revenue for 2017 jumped 29% to reach $92.5 billion, and just over half of that was earned inside its domestic market.