Huawei’s Chief Financial Officer Arrested in Canada

The detention was requested by US authorities who believe that the Company violated the embargo against Iran.

Canadian law enforcers have arrested Huawei’s CFO Wanzhou Meng, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder.

The arrest was requested by US authorities who believe that Huawei violated the terms of anti-Iran trade sanctions and supplied US-made equipment to the country. The investigation in respect of the company has been underway since 2016. Wangzhou is now awaiting extradition to the United States.

Huawei made a restrained comment on the incident and said it was not unaware of any wrongdoing by Wangzhou, and has very little information about the nature of the charges. Huawei representatives added that they count on a fair judgement by Canadian and American courts.

A stronger reaction came from the Chinese Embassy to Canada who demanded the release of Meng Wangzhou calling her arrest a violation of human rights.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was no political agenda to Meng Wangzhou case and his government was not involved in the arrest.

At the same time, several countries including Japan, Canada, Belgium, Great Britain and New Zealand have already decided to get rid of Huawei’s products in public institutions and ban the company from tendering for government orders. The officials’ main concern is that Huawei may be involved in espionage in favor of the Chinese government.

Huawei is the world’s second largest telephone vendor after Samsung. The company also produces equipment for corporate networks and cloud storages. The negative news immediately affected its share prices causing them to fall dramatically.

The ban preventing Huawei from working with government agencies can not only directly hit its sales in the public and corporate sectors, but also drive away ordinary users due to its negative image.