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.