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Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several major trading firms pledged to stop or reduce new dealings with Russian businesses, joining global efforts to weaken Vladimir Putin’s military machine.

One of them was Gunvor Group, a company co-founded by a Swedish businessman and a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin. In 2014, a U.S. Treasury Department report said that Putin himself had investments in the energy trading firm and may have had access to its funds.  Since then, Gunvor’s co-founders have exited, and the company, now valued at about $5 billion, has over the last decade sought to shake its image as a Putin investment tool.

Gunvor has publicly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, and in 2023 corporate filings stated that it had “largely wound-down the trade of Russian oil and products.”

Now, confidential records reviewed by Swedish daily Göteborgs-Posten and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists show how, despite its public pledges, the trader, using some of its subsidiaries, continued doing business with sanctioned Russian oil and gas producers.

The records come from the archives of the U.K. operations of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by asset size and one of Gunvor’s lenders.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/china-banking-icbc-oligarchs-sanctions-london/

OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/china-capital-stories-reveal-how-icbc-advanced-chinas-political-goals-across-four-continents/

PARTNER STORIES China Capital stories reveal how ICBC advanced China’s political goals across four continents Sep 23, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/zhang-hongli-icbc-executive-corruption-employee-misconduct/

CORRUPTION ICBC promoted corrupt executive, ignored employee misconduct as it pursued global expansion Sep 14, 2026

Recommended reading OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026 PARTNER STORIES China Capital stories reveal how ICBC advanced China’s political goals across four continents Sep 23, 2026 CORRUPTION ICBC promoted corrupt executive, ignored employee misconduct as it pursued global expansion Sep 14, 2026

China Capital, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in collaboration with 23 media partners, provided an unprecedented look into decision-making at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of the most powerful Chinese institutions, at a time of China’s ascendance on the world stage.

The investigation is based on more than 4.8 million confidential records from two of ICBC’s U.K. units. The records provide rare insight into one of China’s most important financial arms, showing how the government’s influence and political priorities often outweigh ordinary banking protocols.

This is the first time that an international team of reporters has examined the inner workings and lending practices of ICBC– the world’s largest bank by asset size. Like many of its state-owned peers, ICBC is notoriously secretive.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/icbc-china-capital-video/

VIDEO WATCH: How the world’s biggest bank advances Beijing’s interests Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/china-banking-icbc-oligarchs-sanctions-london/

OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026

https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/huawei-icbc-banking-us-court-beijing-london/

HUAWEI Chinese bank helped Huawei spirit $1B out of London days after US indictment of the tech giant Sep 14, 2026

Recommended reading VIDEO WATCH: How the world’s biggest bank advances Beijing’s interests Sep 14, 2026 OVERVIEW Chinese banking giant serves firms linked to oligarchs and autocrats to push Beijing’s agenda Sep 14, 2026 HUAWEI Chinese bank helped Huawei spirit $1B out of London days after US indictment of the tech giant Sep 14, 2026

-for-its-african-partners/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found. Chinese authorities have approved the two institutions as joint renminbi-clearing banks — an arrangement that is expected to ease transactions in the Chinese currency across 19 countries where Standard Bank operates, the report said.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) headquarters in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Chinese bank also financed key energy projects in Europe. In the U.K., The Times found that ICBC issued nearly $1.7 billion in loans and borrowing options to U.K. water and energy infrastructure companies, including some that were “highly leveraged, with private owners borrowing heavily against relatively guaranteed incomes to maximise dividends.”

This model could leave water companies at risk should disputes arise over the debts, The Times reported. According to one internal memo, ICBC London’s ability to participate in wind farms financing was “strategically important in order to remain relevant in the UK renewables sector”.

The revelations prompted a debate in the British parliament, with some members of the House of Lords raising concerns about Chinese ownership of water utilities and key local infrastructure.

ICBC also showed an interest in financing Sweden’s top oil producer, Preem, the Göteborgs-Posten found. Internal records show how the bank offered loans to the company, a long-term client, in order to benefit Chinese oil companies and obtain access to Preem’s technology. In an internal document examined by ICIJ’s Swedish reporting partner, a banker noted that the deal allowed ICBC to gain insight into technology used for refining waste oil from cooking and forest biomass into premium oil products — a process of particular interest to China.

Serving Russia’s allies

China Capital also exposed how ICBC used its London operations as a financing hub for companies linked to sanctioned Russian and Belarusian business owners even after Western countries imposed financial sanctions to dent Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

ICIJ and the Belarusian Investigative Center reported how ICBC London’s clients included a U.K. subsidiary of Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology, a Chinese construction company. Zoomlion used the subsidiary to partner with Belarusian state-owned company MAZ and build an industrial park near Minsk. The partnership continued even after the European Union and its allies sanctioned MAZ over its ties to Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.

MAZ left the joint venture in 2023, after the U.S. sanctioned the Belarusian firm, but devised a plan to continue supplying heavy vehicles to Zoomlion through an unsanctioned party, according to records obtained by the Belarusian Investigative Center.