…As Paradise Papers firm worked for bank linked to terrorist financing and organised crime***

China plans to develop two deep-sea manned submersibles capable of reaching a depth of 11 kilometres by around 2020, an oceanic association official has said on Tuesday.

Liu Feng, secretary-general of China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association (COMRA), said that China would upgrade a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) able to dive to a depth of 11 kilometers, and will put it into operation after testing.

According to Liu, in 2018, China’s deep-sea manned submersible Jiaolong, which set a record by diving to a depth of 7,062 meters during tests in the Mariana Trench in June 2012, will officially begin operation.

“The Hailong and Qianlong series of unmanned submersibles will be improved this year.

“The former is connected to a support ship by a wire, while the latter is wireless.

“China also plans to develop four other high-tech devices for deep-sea exploration to promote sustainable oceanic development, Liu said.

He said that the association will help establish a branch of the Qingdao-based National Deep Sea Center in south China’s Hainan Province, a sea sample collection center and a comprehensive system for deep-sea monitoring.

“The COMRA will focus on the development of underwater gliders that can dive to depths of 1 km and 4.5 km to monitor the deep-sea environment over vast areas.

“The association will also increase the efficiency of offshore operations in line with the needs of surveying the deep-sea environment, resources, safety and pollution.

“In 2018, six voyages lasting a combined 650 days at sea will be carried out for comprehensive marine surveying,’’ Liu said.

Report says COMRA, established in 1990, aims to carry out exploration and use of the seabed, ocean floor and subsoil in accordance with international conventions.

In the meantime, the firm at the heart of the Paradise Papers leak provided offshore services to a bank accused of facilitating terrorist financing, transnational organised crime and the Syrian government’s chemical weapons programme.

Appleby represented the Cayman Islands holding company of FBME Bank for at least a year after the US Treasury published an extraordinary roster of allegations against the bank, and acted as its agent for more than a decade beforehand.

FBME, which was banned from the US financial system last year, denies all the allegations against it. It said Appleby regularly carried out full compliance checks on FBME Ltd, which it took on as a client in 2004.

Revelations from Appleby’s internal files, obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, were exposed in the Paradise Papers investigation last year.

The investigation was praised by politicians and campaigners for shining a light on tax havens and revealing the myriad ways in which companies and individuals can avoid tax using artificial structures.

The Guardian revealed how Appleby was repeatedly criticised by inspectors in multiple jurisdictions for failing to apply regulations designed to guard against money laundering and terrorist finance in secret reports by offshore regulators.

Appleby is suing the BBC and the Guardian over the Paradise Papers investigation, arguing that none of the articles published were in the public interest. In a statement issued at the time it denied wrongdoing but said it was “not infallible” and always acted quickly to “put things right”.

It has asked the court to permanently ban both media organisations from using its leaked files to investigate its conduct or that of its clients.

FBME was described as “a financial institution of primary money laundering concern” in a notice of finding published in July 2014 by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen).

“FBME is used by its customers to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organised crime, fraud, sanctions evasion and other illicit activity internationally and through the US financial system,” Fincen said.

Appleby withdrew from acting as the FBME holding company’s registered agent 17 months later in December 2015. According to a US court judgment, Appleby decided that “FBME did not fit [its] risk profile”. FBME Ltd effectively ceased to exist in the Cayman Islands, a UK territory, as a result.

Appleby declined to comment on its longstanding relationship with the holding company of FBME Bank, which ended in December 2015. It said it had sold the part of the firm that handled offshore services, which is now a separate company called Estera, and so could not answer questions about the business.

Additional report from Guardian UK