Posted on 08/25/2019 5:54:57 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
French police have seized ten Chinese-owned wine châteaux in Bordeaux on suspicion of tax fraud and money laundering, a police source said on Friday. The châteaux, worth nearly £25 million, are owned by the Haichang Group, controlled by one of China’s richest men, Qu Naijie, 57, an oil billionaire. The group owns 24 estates in Bordeaux, including Château Chenu Lafitte, which it bought for nearly £9 million in 2011. The largest of the many Chinese investors who have bought Bordeaux wineries over the past decade, Haichang has invested nearly £50 million in the French wine industry. For the past four years, France’s Major Financial Crimes Office has been investigating its purchases of châteaux between 2010 and 2013. A police source said: “We discovered a certain number of tax crimes for 10 châteaux, which we suspect were purchased with the proceeds of tax fraud. There is also evidence of forgery.” The wineries were seized “during the second quarter of this year,” according to the source, but the move has only just been made public. The French probe began after investigators saw a report by China’s National Audit Office which revealed that Haichang, a trading and real-estate group, had been granted state subsidies to buy foreign technology but instead purchased vineyards in France. Haichang is based in Dalian, north-eastern China. To conceal the source of the money, shell companies were allegedly created in France to handle the transactions. The funds are believed to have passed through a complicated network of offshore companies, including at least one reportedly registered in the British Virgin Islands, before then being brought into France. Chinese investors have bought about 40 per cent of Bordeaux vineyards put up for sale in recent years, and an estimated 160 French wine estates are now Chinese-owned, nearly all in Bordeaux.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hmmmm Do I sense a PDJT in the vineyard? Pulling some strings?
Looks like the jig is up for China. Even France is getting tired of their cheating.
I see the French trust China, too.
Chinese cheating? Nah...that would never happen. Would it? /s
We can all trust China ...
...
... to lie, cheat, defraud, and steal.
serious loss of face
Let’s just cancel all Chinese debt for cheating, and start over
Where did the $$$ come from when China purchased Smithfield?
What a shock.... someone did not pay their taxes.
So Bill Kristol thinks the president looks demoralized. In the span of 24 hours he makes a trade deal with Japan, and the night after he has dinner with President Macron French police put the screws to a Chinese laundering operation in Bordeaux. I wish we had more “demoralized” politicians who actually get things done like Trump.
France outsourced their vineyards to China?
Oh my
I hope the Frenchie dont throw tea in harbour
But...I thought China was communist...how can there be billionaires?
Shouldn’t his money be shared with all Chinese?
Time for “Follow the Money - China Edition”.
I’m really surprised more countries don’t have something similar to Mexico’s policy on foreigners (not) owning land. Or at least limit it or make it really difficult.
Chicoms want to own the world. The world pretty much lets them.
When they bought Smithfield, didn’t the Chinese pretty much take over most of US pork production?
Thought the same thing. Imagine Chinese communist billionaires ! Whodathunkit?
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