ICBC "250 million deposit missing case" has new developments

The case of "2.5 billion yuan deposit 'disappearing' at ICBC," which had attracted much attention, recently welcomed new developments as the parties involved exchanged evidence at the People's Court of Qingxiu District, Nanning City. The plaintiff provided 36 sets of evidence to the court, mainly to prove that the bank had significant faults. The plaintiff believes that due to the bank's violation of security obligations, there was systemic management negligence. For example, failures in employee behavior investigations, lack of abnormal payment checks, and uncontrolled management of business premises led to the theft of depositors' funds by staff member Liang within 45 minutes of the deposit, through a forged process, despite the bank having prior warnings but failing to intercept in time. The bank's attorney submitted 9 sets of evidence to the court, proving that the bank's processes were compliant, that risks were disclosed on the back of the deposit certificate, and that the depositor's losses were due to criminal acts unrelated to the bank. From September 2018 to May 2019, Liang Jianhong, a staff member of ICBC Nanning Branch, solicited clients with idle funds to conduct large deposit transactions at the bank under the pretext of "contributing deposits for loan enterprises," promising to pay intermediaries an additional monthly return of about 4.5% on top of the normal large deposit interest. To successfully steal the depositors' funds, Liang also instructed subordinate Shi to forge deposit certificates and other bank documents, replacing the real certificates while the depositors were unaware. Statistics show that Liang stole approximately 2.53 billion yuan from 28 victims, with about 120 million yuan still unreturned after deducting the amounts already refunded. On November 19, 2021, the Nanning Intermediate Court issued a first-instance judgment, sentencing Liang Jianhong to life imprisonment, while Shi and two other accomplices received prison terms ranging from 7 to 15 years. In July 2024, involved depositor Wei filed a lawsuit against ICBC Nanning Branch, ICBC Nanning Branch Minzu Sub-branch, and ICBC Nanning Branch Fenglin Road Sub-branch, requesting the court to order the three defendants to pay the principal of 540,000 yuan and interest. Due to the large number of depositors involved in the case, the court, in communication with the plaintiff, decided to select Wei's situation as a typical case for preliminary trial. Given the significance of this case, both parties exchanged evidence in court on July 15, and a hearing will be scheduled for a later date