Leaked files show ICBC financed sanctioned oligarchs from London hub

A trove of 4.8 million confidential records from inside the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has exposed how the world's largest bank used its London operations to finance companies linked to sanctioned oligarchs, autocrats and China's political establishment, according to an investigation published on Sunday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 23 media partners.

The investigation, titled "China Capital," reveals that ICBC — which holds more than $8 trillion in assets — routinely breached or waived its own anti-money laundering and sanctions policies under pressure from its Beijing headquarters, prioritizing geopolitical objectives over compliance standards.icij+1

Financing Oligarchs and Autocrats

The leaked files, dated between 2005 and 2024, show that ICBC London served as a financing hub for companies tied to some of the world's most controversial figures. Among its top clients was Nornickel MMC Norilsk Nickel, the Russian mining giant controlled by allies of President Vladimir Putin. As late as 2024, ICBC considered extending new loans in Chinese currency to Nornickel even as the U.K. and U.S. had banned imports of Russian nickel.icij

ICBC was one of the few foreign banks to increase its exposure to Russia after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than doubling its gross revenue there between 2022 and 2023 and earning around $370 million in Russia in 2024, according to figures analyzed by the Kyiv School of Economics.icij

The bank also helped Chinese tech giant Huawei move $1.3 billion from London to Shenzhen in a single day in 2019, just days after the U.S. Justice Department indicted Huawei for allegedly violating Iran sanctions.icij+1

Loans as Geopolitical Tools

Credit application forms frequently included the phrase "China rationale" to explain why ICBC London would pursue a deal, laying bare the geopolitical nature of many loans. The Australian Financial Review, an ICIJ media partner, reported that ICBC issued loss-making or marginal loans to major Australian resources and infrastructure companies as a strategy to build long-term relationships aligned with Beijing's political objectives.afr+1

Internal records show ICBC analysts assessed each deal for its alignment with President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative and Made in China 2025 industrial policy. In one case, the bank lent about $90 million to Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar despite outside compliance warnings, with bankers noting the client was "strategically important" for China's Belt and Road policy.icij

Compliance Failures Across Borders

The investigation found that regulators in the U.S., Canada and Luxembourg have fined ICBC units for violating anti-financial-crime rules, while about a dozen other countries had raised concerns about similar compliance failures. A money laundering reporting officer noted in a 2019 internal memo: "There is very little appetite to offboard high financial crime risk business".icij

Christopher Walker, vice president at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told ICIJ that China's banks provide capital "desired around the world" but with less regard for conventional banking standards. "Authoritarian capital, in the end, is quite corrosive capital," he said.icij

The Chinese government rejected what it called "false narratives" of "opaque lending," stating through a spokesperson that China's overseas financing "strictly" follows market rules and international norms. ICBC did not respond to ICIJ's repeated requests for comment.icij