A deal reached with the US Justice Department will allow Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou to avoid US extradition and return home, The WSJ reports.

Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief

September 24, 2021

2 Min Read
Huawei's CFO heading home after deferred prosecution deal reached

Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou may be heading home to China soon, according to sources cited in a story by The Wall Street Journal.

The story said that the US Justice Department has reached a deal that will allow for Meng to admit some wrongdoing and to agree to deferred prosecution in exchange for being allowed to return home. As part of the deal, the wire and bank fraud charges would eventually be dropped, negating the need for Meng to be extradited and to stand trial in the US.

The agreement between the sides will be entered in court today, according to The WSJ's sources.

Meng, daughter of Huawei Founder Ren Zhengfei, has been in custody in Canada since 2018 and most recently was able to see her family during the spring. She is accused by US authorities of lying to HSBC about her company's relationship with Skycom, an equipment maker that sold products into Iran. She has been fighting a US extradition request ever since.

Over the summer, Huawei and Meng's legal team had hoped to mount a stirring defense against US fraud accusations but those efforts were stopped short as the Canadian judge declined to allow documents from HSBC into evidence. As a ruling on Meng's extradition drew closer, she apparently has agreed to admit some wrongdoing as part of the deal, something that had been turned down earlier when it was offered by the previous US administration.

The US sanctions against Huawei stand haven't changed, of course. The US has accused Huawei of being an agent of China's communist government and a security risk. Huawei denies this, and the US hasn't publicly proved that there's been any merit to the accusations. The US has also leaned on allies near and far to take the same anti-Huawei stance.

The US strategy of keeping the Chinese vendor from selling to and sourcing from US-related suppliers is working. During the first half of this year, Huawei reported that its revenue dropped 29.4% to $49.6 billion, with both carrier and consumer businesses falling by double digits.

Here are the most recent stories on the Huawei executive's fight to avoid going to trial in the US:

— Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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