As part of a Hong Kong court settlement, HSBC has agreed to hand over to Huawei a dossier it had previously supplied to the US Department of Justice for its case against Meng. The Monday announcement comes after months in court in London and Hong Kong in pursuit of the documents.
Both parties were vague about the details. Huawei said in a statement cited by the Associated Press that “an agreement has been reached with HSBC in relation to the Hong Kong legal proceedings for document production and an order has been approved by the court.”
In a statement to the Financial Times, HSBC said it had “reached an agreement with Huawei and Ms. Meng to resolve the legal proceedings in Hong Kong regarding their request for documents.”
However, some of the documents Huawei has sought include records showing that HSBC knew Skycom was a Huawei subsidiary, and internal documents going back to 2012 showing how the bank evaluated the risks of continuing to do business with Huawei despite international sanctions against Iran.
According to the Financial Times, which cited court documents, HSBC cleared more than $100 million worth of transactions related to Skycom through the US between 2010 and 2014, including $7.5 million paid to a British staffing company.
The DOJ’s charges against Meng include bank and wire fraud, arguing that she deceived banks like HSBC into processing transactions in violation of an international sanctions regime. She has denied all charges.
The US has sought Meng’s extradition since her arrest, but her case has been caught in the courts amid allegations her rights were violated at the time of her arrest and that Trump attempted to use the charges against her as a political bargaining chip in the trade war with China.
Based in China’s Shenzhen, Huawei is one of several Chinese tech giants that has come under attack by the US government in recent years. US intelligence has claimed the Chinese government uses Huawei devices to spy on users - claims the company has denied - and thrown the firm on a blacklist. Huawei is the world’s largest smartphone maker and a major supplier of 5G internet service.
