The chief financial officer of Chinese tech firm Huawei will be released and allowed to return to China after reaching an agreement with the U.S. government on fraud charges, prosecutors said Friday in a Brooklyn, New York, federal court.
A U.S. district judge accepted the deferred prosecution agreement, which will last until Dec. 1, 2022.
Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Canada in December 2018. The U.S. sought to extradite her on bank and wire fraud charges, claiming she misled a financial institution to violate American sanctions on Iran. The U.S. said it now plans to withdraw its extradition request.
Meng pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday. As part of the agreement, however, she took “responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution,” acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Nicole Boeckmann said in a statement.
According to Boeckmann, Meng admitted to making “multiple material misrepresentations” while CFO of Huawei about the company’s business in Iran, in conversations with the senior executive of a financial institution.
