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Beverage king blames partner

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The chairman and founder of Wahaha - the mainland's largest drinks maker - has accused the company's estranged French joint venture partner, Group Danone, of tipping off mainland tax officials in his massive tax-evasion case.

Zong Qinghou, who is being probed by tax authorities over a tax bill of almost 300 million yuan (HK$334.4 million), admitted to the evasion, but insisted he paid more than 200 million of that in October before the investigation opened, the Daily Economic News reported.

'I know Danone had a hand in it,' Mr Zong was quoted as saying, naming Qin Peng , the French firm's greater China area chief executive.

Tax authorities began investigating Mr Zong in November after receiving a tip-off from someone calling himself a 'taxation enthusiast', the latest issue of the business magazine Caijing reported.

They were still trying to determine whether the last-minute payments had put Mr Zong's outstanding tax bill under the threshold for criminal prosecution, the magazine said.

Danone paid Mr Zong US$71 million in service fees, share repurchases and dividends from incentive shares between 1996 - when Danone established a joint venture with Wahaha - and 2006.

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