NEWS
FRENCH COURT CONFISCATED 9 BORDEAUX CHATEAUX OWNED BY HAICHANG BOSS QU NAIJIE
By Tony Zhu
16-5-2024
Credit: Siulan Law Mathews
A French court ruled yesterday to confiscate nine Bordeaux chateaux purchased by Dalian businessman, Qu Naijie, over a decade ago for having used embezzled funds in the acquisition of the properties.
Qu, 63, founder of Haichang Group, was also sentenced to a suspended three-year jail term and fined €1 million (USD1.1m) by the French court.
The fine was €400,000 more than requested by prosecutors, who had asked for a four-year suspended jail term, according to an AFP report.
The chateaux to be confiscated are Chateau L’Enclos, Chateau Baby, Chateau Chenu-Lafitte, Chateau Branda, Chateau Grand Branet, Chateau Laurette, Chateau Thebot, and Chateau Millaud Montlabert.
French media estimated that the properties worth a total of €35.5m.
Haichang invested a total of USD66m for 24 wineries in Bordeaux between 2010 and 2013, among them 10 were seized by French police in 2018 for alleged irregularities including tax frauds, laundering of funds and use of forgery.
The court decided yesterday that 9 of the 10 properties are to be confiscated.
The French police began its investigation in 2014 after a report by China’s National Audit Office which revealed that Haichang, a trading and real estate conglomerate, had been granted state subsidies to buy foreign technology but instead misuse the funds to purchase vineyards in France.
The chateaux were put in the name of Qu's Hong Kong-based wife through a series of shell companies registered in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands.
Qu had said earlier that he had repaid the embezzled funds to the Chinese government, and was not charged for the misdeeds by the Chinese authorities.
He was the biggest of the high profile Chinese investors, including actress Zhao Wei and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who bought into Bordeaux chateaux in the early 2010s.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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