(TDB) - French fraud investigators have confiscated 10 estates in Bordeaux belonging to the Chinese Haichang Group over alleged financial irregularities involved in their original purchase.

Officers from the Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime (OCRGDF) have frozen the ownership of 10 properties over the course of this year following a four-year-long investigation into the source of the funds used to acquire them.

Although the French organised crime bureau has not named any of the châteaux in question, they are all believed to belong to the Chinese Haichang Group, which is run by Naijie Qu and which acquired 24 châteaux – mostly situated in the Libournais – during a buying spree between 2010 and 2013.