Three employees at one of Marubeni Corp’s grain trading unit in China have been detained, Chinese customs said on Thursday, a move prompted by allegations of tax evasion on soybean imports.
The three local staff worked at a Chinese unit of Marubeni’s Columbia Grain, Inc, the Japanese trading house and Chinese customs in the port city of Qingdao said.
The customs authority in Qingdao said the three employees were being detained on suspicion of smuggling. Chinese customs sometimes use smuggling as a broader term for tax evasion.
