Huawei

“WE’LL have him extradited.” So said the self-important ones last year in the context of Jed Mabilog, possibly living in Canada.

Oh yeah?

Extradition treaties usually work on the basis of reciprocity. This means that the offense for which the country seeking extradition must also be an offense in the country from which the alleged offender is residing.

In the case of Mabilog, the allegation was that, on occasion, his net worth (combined with that of his wife) as indicated from his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) showed spectacular gains. This is not an offense in Canada and therefore any extradition attempt from the Philippines would have failed.

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The case of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is more serious. She faces US claims that she misled multinational banks about Iran-linked transactions, putting the banks at risk of violating United States sanctions. Meng was arrested at Vancouver airport on Dec.  1 on the strength of a US arrest warrant, and eventually released on bail of C$10 million on Dec. 11. The next step is for a Canadian judge to decide whether the case against Meng is strong enough for her to recommend to Canada’s justice minister to extradite her to the US.

Canada is no pushover and the US will have to present a good case. Otherwise, the cynical ones will believe that there are commercial, not legal, reasons for its antipathy towards Huawei. After all Huawei enjoyed enormous expansion since 2005 and has recently been making inroads into Apple’s market share in the telecoms sector.

Perhaps surprisingly, it was the Brits in the form of British Telecom (BT) which facilitated Huawei’s early international growth. This was a £10 billion project which transformed BT’s antiquated analogue system to a digital one capable of much greater speed of routing data.

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I am uneasy about the circumstances surrounding Meng’s situation. From numerous cases, particularly over the past 10 years, it seems that banks are prepared to take risks in order to enhance profits. These risks include flouting laws relating to sanctions.

Did Meng really mislead the banks or were the banks complicit in misconduct?

In journalistic parlance, this is a story that will run and run!/PN

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