WHEN Liu Wang, the European head of the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), opened its branch in Madrid in 2011, he probably did not imagine that he would one day return to the city as a prisoner. Yet on February 19th Mr Wang was arrested and jailed without bail. He is one of six of the bank’s executives accused of funnelling dubious cash deposited by Chinese expatriates back to China. Some of the money allegedly came from smuggling and illegal exploitation of workers. ICBC said it always respected the law, and threatened to sue “malicious slanderers”.
The case has parallels with one in Italy involving the Bank of China, which also denies any wrongdoing. Judges in Florence are due to decide next month whether to indict almost 300 people alleged to have illegally sent more than €4.5 billion ($4.9 billion) to China between 2007 and 2010. Much of the money came from businesses in Prato, a textile city in Tuscany, which has a population of around 40,000 Chinese. Many are in Italy illegally and work in semi-clandestine sweatshops.
Because so many Chinese enter Europe irregularly, guided by traffickers known as...Continue reading
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