A Reuters U.S. judge ordered a judge to dismiss bank fraud and other charges against Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies whose arrest strained relations between the U.S. and China on Thursday.
Meng was in Canada last year with a deal with the prosecutors to have her dismissed on December 1, 2022, four years from the date of her arrest on a U.S. warrant, according to a report by Reuters.
With no information that Meng violated the deal, the government respectfully moves to dismiss the third superseding indictment in this case as defendant Wanzhou Meng. U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny wrote in a December 1 letter to U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly.
Huawei, a telecommunications equipment maker that has the U.S. views as a national security threat, is currently being charged in the case, which is pending in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York. A status conference is scheduled for February 7. There isn't yet a trial date.
While Thursday's move was expected, it closes a chapter on the particularly fraught phase of U.S.-China relations that has also thrust Canada into the middle of a broader conflict between the two superpowers.
Meng had been accused of bank fraud and other crimes for misleading global bank HSBC Holdings about the company's business in Iran to obtain banking services in violation of U.S. sanctions.
As part of her deal with a deferred prosecution agreement, she acknowledged that she had made false statements about the company's Iran business in a meeting with a bank executive in 2013.
Meng's statements were in a statement of facts that she agreed was accurate and voluntary and would not contradict.
There are charges against Huawei, from bank fraud to sanctions busting, to conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. technology companies and obstruct justice. It pleaded not guilty.
In the wake of its alleged activities, Huawei was added to a U.S. trade blacklist, which restricted U.S. suppliers from doing business with the company.
The U.S. launched a global campaign against Huawei, warning that the Chinese government could use the company's equipment to spy on the Chinese government. Just this week, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved final rules banning new telecommunications equipment from Huawei.
Meng, daughter of Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, now serves as the company's rotating chairwoman and deputy chairwoman, as well as its chief financial officer.
She flew to China from Canada on September 24, 2021, the day she struck the deal. Two Canadians arrested in China shortly after she was detained were released, and two American siblings who had been prevented from leaving China were allowed to fly home.
A lawyer for Meng did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman for Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.