No crime and no punishment as Meng Wanzhou admits wrongdoing without guilt
- The deferred prosecution agreement struck with US prosecutors requires Meng admit to making untrue statements about Huawei’s business in Iran
- But it demands no form of ongoing cooperation from the Huawei executive, and the charges against her will be dropped entirely in December 2022
Instead, Meng admits wrongdoing without admitting guilt. The language employed by the US Department of Justice to describe the deferred prosecution agreement was at odds with that awkward and scant outcome.
“In entering into the deferred prosecution agreement, Meng has taken responsibility for her principal role in perpetrating a scheme to defraud a global financial institution,” said acting US attorney Nicole Boeckmann in a press release.
But when Meng was asked to respond to the four fraud and conspiracy charges against her, in a video appearance at a US Federal Court in Brooklyn on Friday, her response came through loud and clear, despite the shaky internet connection: “Not guilty”.
A deferred prosecution agreement typically includes both an admission of wrongdoing, and a requirement for some sort of cooperation from the accused, in return for the dropping of charges at a future date.
