Wahaha's chairman investigated for tax evasion

2008年04月27日 浙江在线新闻网站

Since mid last year, the two companies have filed numerous complaints and lawsuits against each other in various Chinese and foreign jurisdictions.

In December, both sides finally agreed to temporarily suspend lawsuits and arbitrations and stop issuing aggressive and hostile statements so that peace talks could restart. Danone has lost several lawsuits over the dispute with Wahaha in China.

China Business News contacted Zong Qinghou for confirmation of the tax evasion report but he refused to comment. He told China Business that he hasn't read any such media reports yet.

But Danone told the newspaper that related government authorities had made tax-evasion investigations at Danone since November. However, it refused to provide more details, the newspaper said.

The two sides also declined to offer any progress about their ongoing peace talks, the newspaper said.

In January, the president of Danone Asia Pacific, Emmanuel Faber, one of the key figures in the French food and beverage maker's estranged dispute with Wahaha, resigned from the Chinese ventures, a move that was considered a key in settling the row with Wahaha as soon as possible. The dispute has hurt the sales and reputation of Danone, according to previous reports.

来源： Shanghai Daily 作者： Lydia Chen 编辑： 侯玮