VANCOUVER — A senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei is facing allegations of fraud by using a subsidiary to violate United States and European Union trade sanctions against Iran in a case that shook world stock markets this week.

A federal prosecutor told a bail hearing for Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on Friday that the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies is wanted in the United States on criminal allegations that Huawei used its subsidiary Skycom to do business with Iranian telecommunications companies between 2009 and 2014.

John Gibb-Carsley said Meng is alleged to have said Huawei and Skycom were separate companies in a meeting with an executive of a financial institution, misleading the executive and putting the institution at risk of financial harm and criminal liability.

“Skycom was Huawei. This is the crux of the alleged misrepresentation. This is the alleged fraud,” said Gibb-Carsley, representing the Attorney General of Canada.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Gibb-Carsley told the B.C. Supreme Court hearing that Reuters reported in 2013 that Huawei was operating Skycom and had attempted to import U.S.-manufactured computer equipment into Iran in violation of sanctions. The story caused concern among banks that did international business with Huawei, he said.

Executives, including Meng, then made a series of misrepresentations about the relationship between the two companies to the banks, inducing them to carry out transactions linked to Iran they otherwise would not have completed and which violated sanction laws, he told the court.

He said Meng met with an executive of a bank and delivered a PowerPoint presentation in which she said Huawei had sold its shares in Skycom in 2009 and she was no longer a member of its board. However, the entity to which Skycom was sold was also controlled by Huawei until at least 2014, Gibb-Carsley alleged.

Huawei operated Skycom as an “unofficial subsidiary,” he said, adding that Skycom employees had Huawei email addresses and badges and former employees have said there was no distinction between the two companies.

“Skycom employees, it’s alleged, were Huawei employees,” Gibb-Carsley said.

The company has said it is not aware of any wrongdoing by Meng and her lawyer, David Martin, said no charge or indictment has been filed against his client, just a warrant.

Martin said Meng’s 2013 presentation to the executive of the bank, which he identified as HSBC, was prepared by numerous employees at Huawei. The presentation did assert that Huawei operates in Iran in strict compliance with applicable laws and sanctions, he said.

It also said that Huawei’s engagement with Skycom is a normal business co-operation and it requires Skycom to make commitments on observing applicable laws.

“The suggestion that this 2013 PowerPoint induced the Hong Kong bank, the largest financial institution in the world, with vast compliance departments … to continue to provide financial services is preposterous,” said Martin.

Huawei sold its shares in Skycom before the sanctions became law in the United States under president Barack Obama in 2010, he added.

Martin also argued that the allegations detailed by Canada do not support the case.

“The allegations contained in this document do not support a prima facie case of fraud against Ms. Meng, let alone against Huawei,” he said.

The case was adjourned until Monday by Justice William Ehrcke to allow the defence more time to complete its submissions.

Gibb-Carsley said the Attorney General opposes Meng’s release on bail.

He said there is incentive for Meng to leave Canada, telling the court her father’s net worth is $3.2 billion and she has no meaningful connection to Canada, apart from spending two to three weeks on vacation in Vancouver every summer.

He also alleged that there is evidence Meng has avoided the U.S. since she became aware of a criminal investigation into her activities.

But Martin told the judge Meng is a prominent figure and she would not violate a court order if she were released.

“You can rely upon her personal dignity,” he said, adding that to breach a court order “would be to humiliate and embarrass her father, who she loves.”

Huawei is the most prestigious tech company in China and was founded by Meng’s father, Ren Zhengfei.

Martin said Meng was previously a permanent resident of Vancouver and her children went to school in the city, so her ties are stronger than claimed by the Crown.

Martin said two properties in Vancouver worth a total of $14 million could be put up for bail, and electronic monitoring and surveillance-based security could be used, although he said neither would be necessary.

Martin added that Meng was willing to surrender her two valid passports to the RCMP.

Arrested over the weekend

Meng was arrested Saturday while in transit at Vancouver’s airport. The court heard she was en route from Hong Kong to Mexico.

Her lawyer said she avoided the U.S. not because of any investigation but because the country has been unfriendly toward Huawei.

The U.S. sees Huawei and smaller Chinese tech suppliers as possible fronts for Chinese spying and as commercial competitors. The Trump administration says they benefit from improper subsidies and market barriers.

“One would have to be tone deaf to not understand that Huawei had become a hostile place to do business,” Martin said.

In a statement earlier this week, Huawei said the company complies with all laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, including applicable export control, sanction laws and regulations of the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.

Target of security concerns

Huawei is the biggest global supplier of network gear used by phone and internet companies, and has been the target of deepening U.S. security concerns. The United States has pressured European countries and other allies to limit the use of its technology.

Meng is a prominent member of Chinese society as deputy chairwoman of the Huawei board. The company is a privately held juggernaut with projected 2018 sales of more than US$102 billion that has already overtaken Apple in smartphone sales.

U.S. and Asian stock markets tumbled after news of Meng’s arrest as it was seen to cause another flare-up in tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Huawei has grown to more than 170,000 employees and does businesses in more than 170 countries since Ren founded the company in 1987.

Meng, who also goes by the first name Sabrina, is one of four deputy chairs listed on the Huawei website and one of three women to sit on the Huawei board.

It appears Hulu and George R.R.Martin are joining forces for a new Sci-Fi series coming to the streaming platform.

The Hollywood Reporter explains sources are saying Hulu is near to acquiring the rights to the Wild Cards science fiction novels. The series is written by a variety of authors known as the Wild Cards Trust but the framework was originally developed by George R.R. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass, who also act as its editors.

The deal will reportedly be produced by Universal Cable Productions and will cover multiple-series of these super-hero stories. It’s also said that Andrew Miller, known for The Secret Circle, will join the series as part of a writers room, which is soon to be in place.

Martin, Snodgrass, and Game of Thrones producer Vince Geradis are all said to be inline to executive produce Wild Cards.

The books take place in an alternate post-World War II setting where an alien virus has been released onto the human population. Dubbed the ‘Wild Card’ virus due to its unpredictable nature, it re-writes human DNA. Most who come in contact die – which seems right for a George R.R. Martin story – but 1% develop superhuman abilities.

While we wait for this potential new series, HBO has released a teaser trailer for the final season of Game of Thrones, which will begin in April 2019. You can also get a look at the first photo from Season 8 here.

Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch.

Director Steve McQueen returned to the limelight at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday with the kickass feminist heist movie “Widows,” at a time when calls are multiplying for heftier roles for women.

It’s been five years since the British director released his last movie “12 Years A Slave,” which won an Academy Award for best picture, and other accolades.

His newest film, starring Viola Davis — the first black woman to be nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one for “Fences” last year — was adapted from Lynda La Plante’s 1983-85 British television series, which McQueen says “just spoke to me as a 13-year-old black boy in London.”

“On screen, these four women were being judged by their appearance rather than their character,” McQueen told a press conference in Toronto for the film’s world premiere.

“And at that point I was too,” he said.

In the film, Davis plays Veronica who lives a cushy life in Chicago financed by her partner Rawlins’s (Liam Neeson) penchant for robbing people.

When a job goes wrong, leaving Rawlins’ gang dead, a local crime boss (Brian Tyree Henry) and his muscle (Daniel Kaluuya) come looking for the money, forcing Veronica to enlist other women who lost their partners (Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo and Elizabeth Debicki) for a heist of their own, in order to win their lives back.

“The best thing we have going for us is being who we are, because no one thinks we have the balls to pull this off,” Veronica says in the film.

Rodriguez’s character Linda adds: “If this whole thing goes wrong, I want my kids to know that I didn’t just sit there and take it, I did something.”

The film, co-written by Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”), also stars Jacki Weaver, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall.

‘Kicking ass’

“These women are absolutely catapulted together in dire circumstances and I think it’s a terrific metaphor for how change happens, because change happens when you’re forced into it kicking and screaming and these women are forced to take ownership of their lives,” Davis said.

“I certainly loved kicking ass,” she added.

Cynthia Erivo, making her feature film debut, commented: “It’s rare that we find a film that allows women to work together in their own individual ways.

“Each one of these women has their quirk, they’re all very different and yet somehow they find connection with each other and they help each other take control of their individual lives.”

Hans Zimmer, who scored the film, had actually worked on the original television series.

He described how he wanted to believe at the time that the show “was going to change the world and things were going to get good… and women were going to have a place and a voice.”

But after conversing with McQueen, he felt disheartened because he realized that in fact “things hadn’t gotten better, if anything they had gotten worse and more brutal and fragmented.”

He said he was eager to work on McQueen’s film to show women’s strength, “because we’re all in this together.”

A dearth of good roles for women in Hollywood has, in recent years, precipitated a movement to call for change.

Reflecting on the lack of roles for black women in particular, Davis said: “I just feel like the narratives that are created in Hollywood right now have got to become inclusive, they have got to reflect the changing world and the changing cultures.

“I no longer want to see a movie in which the person of colour is introduced in the second scene and they’re the bus driver, the social worker or the lawyer and people are saying, ‘At least they’re part of the cast. They’re not part of the main storyline but they’re there,'” she said.

“It’s not enough for them to just be there. I want them to be in the story.”

The thoughts of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and the entire softball community are with the families, teammates and friends of Manvel High School (Manvel, Texas) senior student and softball player Sara Silvas, who tragically lost her life, along with two fellow students, in an automobile accident on Jan. 7 in Brazoria County.

Silvas, 17, attended and played softball at Brazoswood High School her freshman and sophomore years before transferring to Manvel’s dual credit program, where her mother was the advisor for the program. A resident of Clute, Texas, Silvas was scheduled to graduate with her high school diploma, along with her associates degree from Alvin Community College and had planned on attending the University of Texas at San Antonio.

On Jan. 9, friends and family member gathered at the football stadium to sing songs and read poems in memory of the three seniors. In the days that followed, students and family members returned to the scene of the tragic accident, which is now covered with flowers and tokens left by those still mourning the loss of three lives so full of promise. 

Pearland Journal | Obituary

OTTAWA — The Liberal government has unveiled its arms-length attempt to save the country’s struggling news industry by introducing three new tax measures to incentivize Canadians to pay for journalism.

The measures, included in the fall economic statement Wednesday and estimated to cost $595 million over the next five years, are intended to open new avenues of financial support for domestic news organizations that produce “a wide variety” of original content.

The changes come on the heels of promises in last spring’s budget to allocate $50 million over five years to support local journalism in underserved communities.

Starting in January, people will be eligible for a new refundable tax credit to help both non-profit and for-profit news outlets cover labour costs that come with producing “original news content.”

Watch: Tory MP asks if Liberals are trying to ‘buy’ media before 2019 election

A temporary, non-refundable 15-per-cent tax credit is also coming for subscribers of eligible digital news media. The credit is meant to encourage Canadians to change their reading habits and move to online platforms.

Another credit will introduce a new business model for publishers to allow charitable and philanthropic contributions for “trusted, professional” and eligible non-profit journalism organizations.

But despite the long-awaited announcement, details remain sparse on the eligibility criteria, contribution limits for the charitable tax credit, and a working definition for what constitutes professional journalism.

Those definitions and standards will be determined by an independent panel of journalists, the government said. A senior official told HuffPost Canada the measures are admittedly “ill defined” but will be developed and clarified before next year’s federal budget.

“We want it to be as arms-length as possible from government to decide on eligibility and how that should work and we want to push it to that process,” the official said, adding it will be up to the panel, and not government, to iron out the details.

“We don’t want any kind of impression that government is getting political,” the official said. “We’re just putting a marker down that we believe in a strong, free press.”

The panel will be responsible for defining and promoting “core journalism standards,” defining what constitutes “professional journalism,” and proposing standards for tax credit eligibility.

Tories launch fundraising attack

Conservatives have focused on the timing of the government’s announcement as a ploy to “buy” media ahead of next year’s federal election.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who is tasked with the challenge of finding diverse business models to help news outlets survive, brushed off the opposition’s attacks as nothing more than a conspiracy theory.

Following the fall economic update announcement, Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre told reporters that he was concerned about what the proposals would mean for the “independence” of journalists.

“We think the media should be independent from the government. We should not have a situation where the government picks a panel that then decides who gets to report the news,” he said. “That’s very dangerous.”

Poilievre thinks taxpayer dollars should not be used for a government-selected panel to “decide which media survive and which don’t” in an election year.

Asked if he was setting the stage for Tories to blame the media if they lose the next election, Poilievre said: “We’re planning to win the next election.”

Tories also sent out a fundraising email Wednesday calling the tax credits a “naked attempt” by the prime minister to “rig the next election in his favour.”

Canadian journalism industry in ‘death spiral’

The ideas draw heavily from a heritage committee report tabled in the House of Commons last year. The report, which took 15 months to compile, explored ways to save Canadians’ access to local and regional news.

Its members admitted the issue of dying news media opened a “Pandora’s box” of complex challenges and issues to which it was previously oblivious.

“The ground seemed to be shifting beneath our feet daily, and we needed to recall, on occasion, witnesses whose testimonies demanded clarification or had become outdated, and incoherent,” reads the report.

Industry-threatening trends started 10 to 15 years ago when advertising dollars began to drain away from newspapers and broadcasters because of the internet, according to Chris Waddell, a professor at Carleton University’s Journalism and Communication program.

The veteran journalist participated in a government consultation back in May to help bureaucrats find possible solutions to help publishers. At that point, he said, bureaucrats seemingly “had no idea” what they were going to do to support Canadian journalism.

The announcement hasn’t convinced Waddell that the government has a thorough grasp of the challenges facing journalism.

The issue is multi-faceted: not only have newspaper and broadcasters been losing revenue, they’ve also been losing their audience, he said. Waddell questions the strategy of supporting organizations that fail to move online and refuse to acknowledge research that indicates 90 per cent of Canadians are reluctant to pay for online news.

“I’m not sure that giving greater subsidies that continue to produce a printed product that audiences are generally abandoning is a good long-term strategy,” Waddell told HuffPost. “There’s no evidence they have a long-term future.”

Several reports have noted the surge of smartphone use has shifted newspapers and broadcast news audiences online. Young people are reading less print so circulation is also declining.

“And of course it becomes a self-reinforcing problem because the advertisers you’ve got left don’t want to spend as much if the newspaper is not going to as many people.”

Outlets can find themselves stuck in a “death spiral,” moved to cut reporters in order to trim budgets, which affects coverage, he said. “Which means less revenue and you go around the circle and go around the circle again.”

Waddell said the announcement “reflects the government’s belief that it wants to do something, but there’s still not enough in the announcement to actually figure out how it’s going to be applied, who’s going to benefit or what the real implications are.”

To put labour cuts in the journalism industry into perspective, over 3,000 jobs at Postmedia have been cut in the past decade, according to a release by media union CWA.

Union president Martin O’Hanlon warned a weak press “leaves almost no one to hold local politicians and powerful interest to account in many places.”

He welcomed new federal aid, but sharing a sentiment similar to Waddell, said the union won’t endorse the package until further details are finalized and released.

With files from Ryan Maloney

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The NFCA is pleased to announce that Sports Attack has partnered with us as our Convention Clinic Series sponsor.

 

“We’re happy that Sports Attack will be involved with our 2015 NFCA National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Convention Clinic Series sponsor,” said Lacy Lee Baker, NFCA executive director.  “Our convention clinic is always a popular part of the convention, and Sports Attack’s involvement will only make it more successful. We’re also excited that we’ll be raffling off one of Sports Attack’s Hack Attack pitching machines as part of the convention.”

With over 40 years of pitching machine design experience, Sports Attack has established itself as a leader in cutting-edge sports training equipment. The exclusive design of the Hack Attack and Junior Hack Attack three-wheel softball pitching machines allow hitters to see the ball clearly through release, just like a live pitcher. Both throw fastballs, risers, drops and right- and left-handed screwballs to hitters.

The company also has developed equipment for institutional, club and professional users around the world in the sports of baseball, cricket, football, rugby, soccer, tennis and volleyball.

“The National Fastpitch Coaches Association is the premier organization for the exciting sport of fastpitch softball,” Sports Attack President Amanda Pratt said. “It is a privilege for Sports Attack to support the powerful voice and strong advocacy the NFCA provides as we truly share the love of the game.”

For more information about Sports Attack, visit its website at www.sportsattack.com. For more information about the NFCA, visitwww.NFCA.org.

The recent HBO documentary about Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, “The Inventor: Out For Blood in Silicon Valley,” is a strong and accurate depiction of startup culture’s moral issues — the blurring of the lines between truth and reality.

The Theranos story contains important lessons for founders in the early stages of a startup’s lifecycle. Theranos promised to create Edison, a technology that would revolutionize the health-care system, offering minimally invasive bloodwork and, ultimately, preventative detection. The ability to access your health future sooner rather than later — that was the dream. Amid the buzz and hope, everyone wanted to be a part of this next big thing. They believed that Theranos was telling them the truth. But a promise of this magnitude is a slippery slope when a company can’t deliver.

Under pressure

The fall of Theranos in 2017, and the scrutiny of Holmes today, is increasingly relevant. The Canadian startup ecosystem is thriving generally and within specific sub-sectors like fintech, life science and health, AI, big data and analytics, advanced manufacturing and robotics, gaming, cleantech, blockchain and cybersecurity.

For some startups, failure will occur when they are unable to obtain the external buy-in and capital investments they need to get through the first year. Others will achieve too much success, too soon, and rapidly grow unsustainable. Theranos had everything it needed to hold steady and, for nearly a decade, produce unsuccessful prototype after prototype.

Things began to unravel for Holmes and Theranos when Walgreens became a prominent client. The pressure to deliver on Holmes’ promised machine compounded significantly. Up until then, Holmes’ persona, passion and vision were enough to keep investors sold on the technology she was promising. But the company’s engineers knew that the design of the machine proposed by Holmes could not perform the testing they had promised. They knew that they could not deliver in excess of 200 various blood tests and provide accurate results. Technicians were being asked to skew data, and used third-party machines to achieve the accurate lab results the Theranos machine couldn’t.

Internally, many associates of Theranos were struggling with the boldface lies that they were delivering to outsiders. Misdiagnosis and failure to detect illness were commonplace. Theranos was misrepresenting its effectiveness in violation of the ethics they were expected to maintain.

Making a promise… and living up to it

As someone who has been in business and consulting for nearly two decades, I know the pressures faced by startups. With the fate of a company — for many a major personal investment or the sum of their wealth — the temptation to overforecast or oversell is very much a reality.

Startups begin with a strong belief in a product or service, just as Holmes’ had. Then comes the rigorous task of getting others to believe in your company. The “hype” represents the most grandiose vision a founder has for their company, and it’s this hype that hooks others and helps secure capital. Investors will provide capital based on research, data and the statistics a startup offers — all of which can unfortunately be manipulated and misrepresented to make the startup seem more enticing.

There often comes a time in a startup’s lifecycle when founders must decide how far are they willing to stretch the truth to continue forward and make their fiscal ends meet. Some will call it quits, the risk of fraud and potential downfall being far too great. Those unwilling to surrender will push the envelope, hoping they’ll land a big payoff before anyone’s the wiser.

It’s easier than you think. A startup is a gamble. Some founders will convince themselves that if they hang in there just a bit longer, they will eventually reap the rewards. They also truly believe in their mission and want to see it realized. With such a mindset, it’s easy to convince yourself that any decision you make to keep a company afloat is the right one. The risk of losing it all, personally and for investors, is another powerful motivator. It can drive a founder like Holmes to go to great lengths to hide the truth from the outside world.

This is the fear and stress that plagues most startups. How far do we have to go before people stop believing in us, and how close to materializing our dream will we be when we reach that point? Can we risk it all by being transparent?

Being uncomfortable is a condition of growth; seldom can one build a startup without leaving their comfort zone. For Holmes, this meant being open and honest. Her failure to do so cost her.

For those in a startup or wanting to create one, the lesson is that transparency and patience are a key part of the success of your business. Hype creates much-needed momentum at the outset, certainly, but you must be able to recognize when you have extended your startup beyond what is realistic and deliverable. In such a situation, receiving more than you ask for is not always a blessing.

They say “fake it ’til you make it” is the unofficial motto of Silicon Valley. But if you tell the world you’ve made it and go public with a startup, be ready to back it up.

Have you been affected personally by this or another issue? Share your story on HuffPost Canada blogs. We feature the best of Canadian opinion and perspectives. Find out how to contribute here.

Undertale’s creator Toby Fox is mysteriously teasing something, and whatever it is may be revealed tomorrow.

Toby Fox tweeted out, saying it’s “really important” for those who completed Undertale to check the official Undertale Twitter account in 24 hours from when he posted the tweet early this morning. He says he wants to make something new using fan feedback, and a Windows PC or MacOSX PC is needed for whatever he has planned.

The official Undertale Twitter account has blacked out its thumbnail and visible username, tweeting out a series of all-caps messages suggesting something will be announced tomorrow. For reference, the characters Papyrus and Mettaton are both known to speak this way, though Mettaton stops doing this once he transforms into Mettaton EX.

The full message spread throughout the tweets reads: “WELCOME. HAVE YOU BEEN LOOKING FOR ME? HOW WONDERFUL. I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU AS WELL. I HAVE SOMETHING, SOMETHING I WANT TO SHOW YOU. SOMETHING I THINK YOU WILL FIND VERY, VERY INTERESTING. BUT IT IS NOT YET COMPLETE. NO, IT IS FAR FROM COMPLETE. THUS I HAVE A SMALL FAVOR TO ASK OF YOU. RETURN HERE IN [24] HOURS. AT THAT TIME, I WILL ASK YOU A FEW QUESTIONS. THEN, USING YOUR RESPONSES, WE WILL APPROACH ITS REALIZATION. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. I WILL BE IN CONTACT AGAIN SOON.

Error 429 Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Guru Meditation:

XID: 709963098

---

Varnish cache server

What exactly Fox has planned is anyone’s guess, but whether it be an expansion to Undertale, a proper sequel, or a new project entirely will hopefully be cleared up by tomorrow morning.

In our review of Undertale, we called the game a “Masterpiece” saying, “It tells its story in such a dynamic way, and with such a great understanding of the RPG player’s mindset, that it couldn’t have been told in any other way.”

Error 429 Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Mashing buttons will get you nowhere!

Guru Meditation:

XID: 709963099

---

Varnish cache server

Undertale was recently released on the Nintendo Switch alongside 16 other games. For more on Undertale, read our Genocide walkthrough and Pacifist walkthrough of the game.