New documents link Huawei to suspected front companies in Iran, Syria

“The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centers on the company’s suspected ties to two obscure companies,” Steve Stecklow, Babak Dehghanpisheh, and James Pomfret report for Reuters. “One is a telecom equipment seller that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm’s owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius. ”
“U.S. authorities allege CFO Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. Huawei has maintained the two are independent: equipment seller Skycom Tech Co Ltd and shell company Canicula Holdings Ltd,” Stecklow, Dehghanpisheh, and Pomfret report. “Corporate filings and other documents found by Reuters in Iran and Syria show that Huawei, the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment, is more closely linked to both firms than previously known.”
“Huawei, U.S. authorities assert, retained control of Skycom, using it to sell telecom equipment to Iran and move money out via the international banking system. As a result of the deception, U.S. authorities say, banks unwittingly cleared hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions that potentially violated economic sanctions Washington had in place at the time against doing business with Iran,” Stecklow, Dehghanpisheh, and Pomfret report. “Until two years ago, Canicula had an office in Syria, another country that has been subject to U.S. and European Union sanctions.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wait, an outfit that peddles iPhone knockoffs, among other things, employs reputed serial liars and money launderers who flout international economic sanctions? Shocking.
People who buy Android phones and tablets reward thieves. — MacDailyNews, August 14, 2015