On the morning of July 15, the case of “disappearance of 250 million RMB deposit in ICBC” involving depositors suing three banks was heard in the Qingxiu District Court in Nanning, Guangxi.
The trial, as reported by the “Chongqing Morning Post,” started at 8:30 in the morning and ended at 9:30.
The lawyer representing the depositors, Zhou Zhaocheng, explained that due to the large number of depositors involved in the case, the court and the plaintiffs decided to select the case of Ms. Wei, one of the depositors, as a typical example for trial. Ms. Wei sued Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Nanning Ethnic Branch, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Nanning Branch, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Nanning Fenglin Road Branch, demanding that they pay her approximately 586,000 yuan in deposit principal and interest.
Zhou Zhaocheng stated that the plaintiffs provided the court with 36 pieces of evidence. The main evidence showed that due to management loopholes and errors in the bank, the depositors’ money disappeared. For example, the deposit was stolen by the employee Liang Jianhong through forged procedures just 45 minutes after the deposit was made due to issues like ineffective employee behavior checks, lack of abnormal payment verification, and uncontrolled management of the business premises. Additionally, the bank had early warnings but failed to intercept in time.
ICBC also submitted 9 pieces of evidence for defense, emphasizing that the bank’s operation procedures are in compliance with regulations, and risk warnings were provided on the back of the deposit slips, believing that the root cause of the losses lies in the personal criminal acts of Liang Jianhong, for which the bank is not responsible.
Zhou Zhaocheng believed that there is a savings deposit contract relationship between depositors and the banks, and due to the bank’s violation of its security obligations, there is systemic management negligence. The bank should bear joint compensation responsibility for the deposit principal and interest.
The court stated that due to the significance of the case, the subsequent hearing date will be notified separately.
On March 18, 2022, the topic of “disappearance of 250 million RMB deposit in ICBC” made it to the hot search list on Weibo.
According to reports, from September 2018 to May 2019, Liang Jianhong, an employee of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Nanning Branch, used the excuse of “contributing deposits for loan companies” to lure customers with idle funds to carry out large deposits at the bank through three intermediaries. He promised to pay additional monthly returns of around 4.5% to the intermediaries in addition to the normal bank deposit interest. Furthermore, Liang Jianhong instructed his subordinate Shi to forge deposit slips and other bank documents to replace real deposit slips while depositors were unaware.
Statistics show that Liang Jianhong misappropriated deposits from 28 victims totaling approximately 253 million yuan. After deducting the amount already returned before the case was exposed, there is still about 120 million yuan that remains unrecovered.
On November 19, 2021, Liang Jianhong was sentenced to life imprisonment for theft, fraud, and forgery of financial instruments, while Shi and two other accomplices received sentences ranging from seven to fifteen years.
After the incident, the local banking regulatory authority conducted an on-site inspection of ICBC Guangxi Branch, concluding that the bank was at fault in terms of premises and personnel management, and appropriate penalties were imposed.
Prior reports:
250 million RMB deposit goes missing, depositors have nowhere to seek compensation.