HSBC suffered no risk of loss as a result of alleged deceptions by Meng Wanzhou, her lawyer told a Canadian court on Monday, as the Huawei Technologies chief financial officer’s two-year battle against extradition to the United States entered a critical stage, reported the South China Morning Post.
But a Canadian government lawyer representing US interests said the fact that Huawei was not a “deadbeat” borrower from the bank was irrelevant to Meng’s alleged fraud.
This phase of hearings in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, lasting until April 1, is scheduled to include extensive arguments about whether Meng suffered an abuse of process when border agents questioned her and seized her electronic devices and passwords at the city’s international airport on December 1, 2018, before police arrested her.
Meng’s meeting with the HSBC banker took place in a Hong Kong teahouse in 2013; HSBC is not a US bank; and Meng is not a US citizen. Her lawyers thus contend that the US is trying to assert extraterritorial jurisdiction, in breach of customary international law, reported the SCMP.