A court in Madrid on Saturday has ordered the jailing of six employees of the local branch of China's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), after they were detained on suspicion of committing several economic crimes, including money laundering.
Three of them - the branch's first general manager, current general manager and vice general manager - were ordered jailed without bail, while the other three were jailed but were each granted a bail of 100,000 euros ($111,280), the Xinhua News Agency reported at Saturday night.
Spanish police reportedly raided ICBC's Madrid offices as part of an operation against alleged money laundering activities.
The Madrid branch remained open after the reported raid by Spanish law enforcers, an unnamed ICBC official was quoted by Xinhua as saying on Saturday.
The branch is cooperating with the police investigation and people should not conclude that the bank was guilty since the local court has yet to reach a conclusion, the official pointed out.
The Chinese government hopes that Spain would deal with the issue in a just way according to law, protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and personnel, and safeguard the sound development of China-Spain ties, Hong Lei, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Thursday.
The Chinese government requires that Chinese companies operating abroad strictly abide by the laws, both of China and the country they are working in, said Hong.
The bank told its Madrid branch to cooperate with the investigation, and hired lawyers to protect the rights and interests of the bank staff, Xinhua reported.
The branch informed the Chinese Embassy in Spain that the bank uses the latest anti-money laundering system provided by Spanish authorities to control the flow of capital, the embassy said in a statement on Friday.
