HSBC Doesn't Have to Give Documents to Huawei CFO, U.K. Judge Says -- Update
February 19 2021 - 7:00AM
Dow Jones News
By Simon Clark
HSBC Holdings PLC doesn't have to hand over banking documents
requested by HuaweiTechnologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng
Wanzhou as part of her effort to resist a U.S. extradition order, a
judge in London's High Court said.
Ms. Meng, who filed a lawsuit at the U.K. court, was arrested by
Canadian police in 2018 on behalf of the U.S. Department of
Justice, which has accused her in a criminal case of misleading
HSBC about Huawei's business ties in Iran while the country was
subject to U.S. sanctions.
Huawei is one of China's top companies and a global leader in
telecommunications equipment. Ms. Meng asked the court in London,
where HSBC is based, to obtain documents that her lawyers said
would prove she didn't mislead the bank. She is currently living in
Vancouver under bail terms requiring her to wear an ankle monitor
and be supervised by court-appointed security.
"I have no jurisdiction to make the order sought," Judge Michael
Fordham said Friday.
An HSBC spokeswoman said the bank was pleased with the court's
ruling, saying the bank wasn't party to the underlying U.S. case or
the extradition request in Canada.
A Huawei spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment.
The U.S. case against Ms. Meng has further inflamed its
relations with China and deepened HSBC's entanglement in the
geopolitical standoff. The bank, which competes with the likes of
Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., services multinational
companies, but makes most of its profit in Hong Kong and China.
Last year, HSBC supported Beijing's imposition of a new security
law in Hong Kong. The move angered U.S. and U.K. politicians who
said it undermined an agreement to give the city a high degree of
autonomy after the British handed it back to China in 1997.
As the controversy over the national security law peaked last
summer, Chinese state media accused HSBC of setting Huawei up in
Ms. Meng's case. The reports forced HSBC to issue a statement
saying it wasn't involved in the U.S.'s decision to investigate
Huawei or to arrest Ms. Meng, who is the daughter of Huawei's
founder, Ren Zhengfei.
Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 19, 2021 06:45 ET (11:45 GMT)
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