Huawei in U.S. court after being accused of improperly helping its CFO in Canada

By Karen Freifeld

April 26 (Reuters) - Lawyers for China's Huawei will appear
in a New York court on Monday to defend the indicted telecoms
equipment giant against accusations it is improperly helping its
chief financial officer fight extradition from Canada.

U.S. prosecutors claim Huawei wrongly shared materials the
government disclosed in the criminal case against the company
with chief executive officer Meng Wanzhou, who also is charged
but considered a fugitive.

A hearing on the dispute is scheduled for Monday afternoon
in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where Huawei and Meng were
indicted for bank fraud and other crimes, in a case that has
strained ties between the United States, China and Canada. Meng
was arrested on a U.S. warrant in Vancouver in December 2018.

Huawei's counsel is "impermissibly using the government's
discovery in this case to help Meng fight extradition from
Canada," U.S. prosecutors said in an April 14 letter seeking the
hearing.

Huawei has denied it made information available in violation
of any court orders.

Nothing "prohibits the defendants from stating that the
evidence provided in discovery contradicts the government's
allegations," lawyers representing Huawei wrote in an April 21
filing.

The indictment is one battle in a campaign the United States
has waged against Huawei, which it has warned could spy on
customers for Beijing. The company also was placed on a U.S.
trade blacklist, and the United States moved to cut off its
global chip supply.

Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the case and Meng has said
she is innocent.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Andrea Ricci)