UK politician urges Hong Kong authorities to probe HSBC, StanChart over ‘illicit funds’ linked to South Africa corruption scandal

A British parliamentarian has urged Hong Kong’s financial authorities to investigate his claims that banks in the city were used to process allegedly illicit funds linked to South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma and the powerful Gupta family of businessmen.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Thursday, Lord Hain of Neath, a former government minister, asked Philip Hammond, the UK’s finance minister, to ensure that HSBC, Standard Chartered and other European banks tracked down what he described as the “corrupt proceeds of money stolen from [South African] taxpayers and laundered through Dubai and Hong Kong”, and return it to the South African Treasury.

Hain’s question followed an exchange of letters between him and the chancellor in which he informed Hammond of his concerns about “the complicity, whether wittingly or unwittingly, of UK financial institutions in the Gupta/Zuma criminal network”.

“Based on my knowledge, the majority of these illicit funds have flowed through the UAE and Hong Kong. In both jurisdictions two of the UK’s largest financial institutions, HSBC and Standard Chartered, have their biggest footprints,” Hain wrote in a letter dated September 25.

“Can you also please get in touch with the authorities responsible for proper financial regulation in Dubai and Hong Kong to make enquiries?”

South Africa has been rocked by a scandal in which members of the wealthy Gupta family are alleged to have benefited financially and gained political influence from ties to President Zuma.