Wanzhou Meng (“Meng”), also known as “Cathy Meng” and “Sabrina Meng,”
is the Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (
Huawei”), a corporation organized under the laws of the People’s Republic
of China (“PRC”) and the world’s largest telecommunications equipment
company. Meng is a citizen of the PRC and a daughter of Huawei’s founder,
Ren Zhengfei. In addition to her role as CFO, Meng currently serves as
Huawei’s Deputy Chairwoman of the Board, and serves or has served in
various roles at other Huawei subsidiaries and affiliates. Meng also served
on the board of Hong Kong-based Skycom Tech Co. Ltd. (“Skycom”) in or
about and between February 2008 and April 2009. According to financial
statements for Skycom for the years 2009 and 2010, the “principal
activities of Skycom were engaged in [sic] investment holding and acting as
a contractor for contracts undertaking [sic] in Iran.”
According to information obtained through an investigation by U.S.
authorities, including the following, Huawei operated Skycom as an
unofficial subsidiary to conduct business in Iran while concealing Skycom’s
link to Huawei. In this manner and as explained in further detail below,
Huawei could conceal the nature of certain business it was conducting in and
related to Iran, which is generally considered a high-risk jurisdiction.
Former employees of Skycom have stated, in sum and substance, that Skycom
was not distinct from Huawei. For example, Skycom employees had Huawei email
addresses and badges, individuals working in Iran used different sets of
stationery (“Huawei” and “Skycom”) for different business purposes, and
the leadership of Skycom in Iran were Huawei employees;
Documents show that multiple Skycom bank accounts were controlled by Huawei
employees, and Huawei employees were signatories on these accounts between
2007 and 2013;
Documents show that a purportedly unrelated entity to which Skycom was
supposedly “sold” in 2009 was actually also controlled by Huawei until at
least in or about 2014.
Transactional records and other documents obtained by U.S. authorities
further demonstrate that Huawei operated Skycom as an unofficial subsidiary
to conduct business in Iran while concealing Skycom’s link to Huawei. Among
other things, records obtained through the investigation show that Skycom
was used to transact telecommunications business in Iran for major Iranian-
based telecommunications companies.
The investigation by U.S. authorities has revealed a conspiracy between and
among Meng and other Huawei representatives to misrepresent to numerous
multinational financial institutions, including a global financial
institution which conducts business in the United States (“Financial
Institution 1”), Huawei’s business practices, particularly Huawei’s
control of Skycom in or about and between 2009 and 2014. Specifically, Meng
and other Huawei representatives repeatedly lied about the nature of the
relationship between Huawei and Skycom and the fact that Skycom operated as
Huawei’s Iran-based affiliate in order to continue to obtain banking
services from multinational financial institutions.