The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released an investigative report on the 14th, revealing that the London branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest asset base, has long served as Beijing's geostrategic financing hub, providing financial services to sanctioned Russian and Belarusian companies, as well as dictators and dignitaries in various countries involved in corruption scandals, thereby promoting China's global geopolitical goals and ignoring its internal money laundering prevention and sanctions regulations.
ICIJ cooperated with 23 media to review as many as 4.8 million leaked confidential documents from ICBC between 2005 and 2024, and released this investigative report called "China Capital". ICBC has always been an important force in China's global expansion strategy. As of the end of last year, it had established 410 subsidiaries and branches in 49 countries and regions, with assets exceeding US$8 trillion, firmly ranking as the world's largest bank by total assets.
Documents show that after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ICBC was one of the few foreign banks that actually increased its business with Russia. It continued to provide financing for Nornickel, a mining giant controlled by sanctioned Russian President Vladimir Putin's confidant Oleg Deripaska, to ensure the supply of raw materials for China's electric vehicle and battery supply chain.
In order to circumvent the import ban on Russian metals imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom, ICBC London Branch executives even discussed a plan to build a smelting plant in China and relabel Russian minerals as "Made in China" to circumvent sanctions.
In Belarus, although the Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), the Belarusian joint venture partner of Chinese construction machinery giant Zoomlion, has been sanctioned by the West and is suspected of providing dual-use heavy machinery to the Russian army, ICBC London Branch continues to provide fund clearing services despite the risk of sanctions.
The investigation found that in order to cooperate with China’s “Belt and Road” initiative and obtain strategic resources, ICBC repeatedly placed national interests above compliance review. In the case of a port expansion loan in Sierra Leone, although subsequent investigations revealed that the developer was involved in major bribery allegations, bank executives chose to cover up the matter rather than formally cancel the loan to avoid offending the country's government and damaging diplomatic relations with China.
In addition, ICBC’s London branch has also provided huge financing to banks and the National Oil Company controlled by the daughter of Azerbaijan’s dictatorial president Ilham Aliyev, and has long provided loans to Angola’s former dictatorial government, which was plagued by corruption scandals. Internal logs showed that London branch staff had released and delayed reporting unusual financial transactions by a Kuwaiti dignitary. The amount of more than US$800,000 was later found to be related to the Malaysian "1Malaysia Development Bhd" (1MDB) money laundering scandal that shocked the world.
The investigation pointed out that, as a Chinese state-owned bank, ICBC is tasked with the "dual mission" of maximizing profits and serving China's national economic interests. Although the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and other national regulatory agencies have repeatedly fined or expressed concerns about its money laundering prevention loopholes, ICBC's Beijing head office still requires its global branches to take "unified steps."
