ICBC "25 million yuan deposit missing case" has new developments

The case of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's "2.5 billion yuan deposit disappearing" that once attracted attention has recently seen new developments, with both parties exchanging evidence at the Qingxiu District People's Court in Nanning. The plaintiff provided 36 sets of evidence to the court, mainly to prove that the bank had committed serious errors. The plaintiff believes that due to the bank's violation of its security obligations, there were systemic management failures. For example, ineffective employee behavior monitoring, lack of verification for abnormal payments, and loss of control over business premises resulted in a depositor's funds being stolen by the bank's employee Liang through forging processes just 45 minutes after the deposit was made. The bank had early warnings but did not intercept them in time. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's representative lawyers submitted 9 sets of evidence to the court, proving that the bank's processes were compliant, risks were already stated on the back of the deposit slips, and the losses incurred by depositors were due to criminal activities and not related to the bank. From September 2018 to May 2019, Liang Jianhong, a staff member of the ICBC Nanning Branch, attracted clients with idle funds to deposit large sums by promising additional monthly returns to intermediaries, besides regular interest rates. To smoothly steal the depositor's funds, Liang Jianhong also instructed his subordinate Shi to forge bank documents, replacing the real deposit slips when the depositors weren't paying attention. According to statistics, Liang Jianhong stole approximately 2.53 billion yuan from 28 victims, of which around 1.2 billion yuan remains unrecovered after some funds were returned. On November 19, 2021, the Nanning Intermediate People's Court sentenced Liang Jianhong to life imprisonment, while Shi and two other criminals received 7 to 15 years in prison. In July 2024, one of the affected depositors, Wei, sued the ICBC Nanning Branch, the ICBC Nanning Branch Ethnic Minority Branch, and the ICBC Nanning Branch Fenglin Road Branch, requesting the court to order the three defendants to pay back the deposit principal of 540,000 yuan plus interest. Due to the involvement of numerous depositors in the case, after communication with the court and the plaintiff, it was decided to use Wei's case as a typical example for priority trial. As this case is significant, both parties exchanged evidence in court on July 15th, and a trial date will be scheduled.