Chinese billionaire’s philanthropic motives questioned

A donation of 8bn yuan (£700m) worth of shares by the Chinese mining and supermarket tycoon Chen Fushu to create the country’s largest civil charity foundation, is ‘widely speculated’ to have been made to counter allegations of tax fraud, according to state-run Chinese newspaper China Daily.

Chen, China’s 15th richest person according to this month’s Hurun list, announced last week that he had put the stock, which account for nearly half of his personal assets, into establishing the New Huadu Philanthropic Fund. It will be modelled on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and mainly help schooling in poverty-stricken areas.

The government-run, English-language China Daily newspaper reported that the mogul is under investigation for alleged tax fraud in connection with his sale in 2008 and 2009 of a majority stake in a leading Chinese gold-mining concern and that the charity is ‘widely speculated’ to be ‘a measure to save himself from the tax fraud accusation’.

Chen denied the accusation and said his efforts to set up the fund predate the business sale.