China Investment Corporation, the world’s fourth largest sovereign wealth fund, has been accused by the country’s top auditor of mismanagement, dereliction of duty and poor due diligence just seven years after its inception.
The National Audit Office said CIC – an investor in big US financial institutions such as Blackstone and Morgan Stanley – had incurred unquantified losses on overseas investments due to this mismanagement.
CIC, which has $650bn in assets under management, has made $200bn in investments around the world since it was set up in 2007 to earn higher returns on the country’s burgeoning foreign exchange reserves. In Britain it has taken stakes in high-profile assets such as London’s Canary Wharf.