While transferring planes at Canada's Vancouver International Airport en route to Mexico from Hong Kong, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested by the authorities at the request of the U.S..
It was later revealed that the arrest was issued long before, on August 2018 by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
According to the Canadian court, Meng was "charged with conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions."
The warrant was based on allegations of a conspiracy to defraud banks which had cleared money that was claimed to be for Huawei, but was actually for Skycom Tech, a company claimed to be entirely controlled by Huawei, which was said to be selling U.S. equipment to Iran despite U.S. and European Union bans.
"Meng may have personally been involved in tricking financial institutions into making transactions that violated United States sanctions against Iran," said a report.
Here, she was charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud.
Meng attended a bail hearing in Vancouver, and was released on a C$10 million bail, with conditions, including electronic surveillance.
With the U.S. seeking for her extradition, Meng accused the Canadian authorities of violating her rights when they detained her on behalf of the U.S. government.
Her lawyers defended her, saying that the bank involved was actually HSBC, and the allegations were rejected, saying that Meng didn't break any laws of the U.S. nor Canada.
With China having her back, the Chinese embassy in Canada condemned her arrest, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry calling for the Canadian and American ambassadors to protest over the detention.
The Chinese government told Canadian ambassador John McCallum that Meng's arrest "severely violated the Chinese citizen's legal and legitimate rights and interests, it is lawless, reasonless and ruthless, and it is extremely vicious" and warned of "serious consequences" unless Meng was released.
China's ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye accused Canada of "Western egotism and white supremacy".
Meng Wanzhou was born in 13 February 1972 in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
As the daughter and the oldest child of Ren Zhengfei, the founder and president of Shenzhen-based Huawei, she became the company's CFO after she graduated from university.
Meng frequently visit Canada since she and her husband Liu Xiaozong own two multimillion-dollar residences in Vancouver. From 2001 to 2009, Meng was a permanent resident of Canada.
As Huawei CFO, besides bringing a Huawei Mate 20 RS with her, Meng apparently preferred Apple's product, as she was holding an iPhone 7 Plus, a 10.5-inch iPad Pro and a 2015 MacBook when the Canadian police arrested her in December.
After Meng's arrest, in an escalating diplomatic row, China arrested of former diplomat Michael Kovrig in Beijing, and later detained businessman Michael Spavor.
Both are Canadian, and said to be part of China's retaliation against Canada's arrest of Meng, according to former Canadian ambassador Guy Saint-Jacques.