JPMorgan Chase and HSBC banks unknowingly processed payments for companies in Africa controlled by the late leader of the Wagner Group mercenaries, Eugene Prigozhin, as his mercenary army expanded across the continent where he was accused of human rights abuses, as revealed by the Financial Times (FT).
In 2017, a Sudanese company controlled by the Russian oligarch made purchases of industrial equipment in China that transited through major Western banks, according to documents to which the think tank Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), on which the information is based.
According to the same media, an invoice shows that in August 2017, Sudanese mining company Meroe Gold sent a payment from a local bank account via JPMorgan Chase as an intermediary bank in New York to a seller in China. Another invoice shows that the same company sent payment for diesel generators and spare parts to a Chinese company via Hang Seng Bank, part of the HSBC group.
Prigozhin had been under sanctions since 2016. At the time, this was not the case for Meroe Gold, which was subsequently placed under US sanctions for being “owned or controlled by Prigozhin” and for helping him “exploit Sudan’s natural resources for his own benefit.”
The leaked documents show, according to the same newspaper, how the Wagner leader “was able to establish a transnational criminal empire in the field of natural resources, in part by secretly hijacking the payment systems of Western financial institutions.”
He FT indicates that there is no evidence that the entities knew they were handling transactions ordered by Wagner Group front entities.
HSBC declined to comment on the specific transactions in Sudan, but said it was “deeply committed to combating financial crime and the integrity of the global financial system.” JP Morgan said: “After reviewing the limited details shared with us, we have found no records consistent with these transactions.”
Prigozhin died in August 2023 when the private plane he was traveling on crashed under mysterious circumstances, two months after an attempted mutiny against Vladimir Putin.
