Monday, 4 Nov 2024

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei CFO, released from custody following bail hearing

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was released from custody Tuesday night following a bail hearing earlier in the day.

Meng was escorted to a black Cadillac Escalade SUV by Scot Filer, the CEO of Lions Gate Risk Management, which is handling her security while she’s out on bail, as she left the B.C. Supreme Court building in Downtown Vancouver.

Meng was granted bail earlier Tuesday following a three-day hearing that came after she was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered that she be released on $10 million bail, with $7 million coming in cash and $3 million in sureties.

Now out of custody, she’s living under a number of conditions, including that she has to wear an ankle bracelet, she must surrender her passports and she has to stay within Vancouver and the city’s suburbs, staying in one of two Vancouver homes her family owns from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Meng is at the centre of allegations that Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, has used a subsidiary known as Skycom to do business with Iran, against U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Justice William Ehrcke did not give much weight to allegations that Meng avoided going to the U.S. after a criminal investigation into the allegations started in 2017.

Crown lawyers had argued posed a flight risk because of her wealthy status, as well as a lack of ties to Vancouver.

The defence argued that Meng had ties to Vancouver which included two homes she owned with her husband Liu Xiaozong in Vancouver’s affluent Dunbar and Shaughnessy neighbourhoods.

Her lawyers also argued that she would never flee and risk dishonouring her family, her company or her country.

  • With files from Jon Azpiri, Rumina Daya and Tanya Beja

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