HSBC exec ‘protected’ from alleged sex assault claim through Chinese Communist Party membership
A parliamentary committee is investigating allegations that an HSBC executive was protected from sexual assault claims by being a member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
The explosive claims are reportedly contained in a dossier that is being compiled for a Foreign Affairs Committee report into HSBC’s role in Beijing’s freedom of speech crackdown in Hong Kong.
HSBC faced backlash last summer after it issued a statement in favour of a new national security laws in Hong Kong that handed Beijing sweeping powers over the former British territory.
The Sunday Telegraph reports the dossier will be considered by the committee in the coming weeks, however it is not clear if it will release the allegations in full.
The committee received information that an HSBC Shanghai employee allegedly reported sexual assault claims against a senior executive in 2014, however the employee was later dismissed from her job for “incompetence”.
The accuser claims that she was in fact sacked due to the fact that the man allegedly involved was a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
It comes as HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn is set to come before the Foreign Affairs Committee to be questioned on the major bank’s decision to freeze bank accounts of pro-democracy Hong Kong protesters.
Quinn wrote to Hong Kong activist Ted Hui earlier this week to inform him HSBC would be freezing his account under orders from Hong Kong police.
HSBC was contacted for comment.