By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – Lawyers for China’s Huawei will appear in a New York court on Monday to defend the indicted telecoms equipment giant against accusations it is improperly helping its chief financial officer fight extradition from Canada.
U.S. prosecutors claim Huawei wrongly shared materials the government disclosed in the criminal case against the company with chief executive officer Meng Wanzhou, who also is charged but considered a fugitive.
A hearing on the dispute is scheduled for Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where Huawei and Meng were indicted for bank fraud and other crimes, in a case that has strained ties between the United States, China and Canada. Meng was arrested on a U.S. warrant in Vancouver in December 2018.
Huawei’s counsel is “impermissibly using the government’s discovery in this case to help Meng fight extradition from Canada,” U.S. prosecutors said in an April 14 letter seeking the hearing.
Huawei has denied it made information available in violation of any court orders. Nothing “prohibits the defendants from stating that the evidence provided in discovery contradicts the government’s allegations,” lawyers representing Huawei wrote in an April 21 filing.
The indictment is one battle in a campaign the United States has waged against Huawei, which it has warned could spy on customers for Beijing. The company also was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist, and the United States moved to cut off its global chip supply.
Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the case and Meng has said she is innocent.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
