Second ex-Coca-Cola employee detained in Shanghai

A second ex-employee of Coca-Cola has been detained in Shanghai on suspicion of taking kickbacks, AP reported. Coca-Cola confirmed that an investigation was underway just days after another former employee was detained on Sunday in the face of similar allegations. But Kenth Kaerhoeg, a company spokesman in Hong Kong, refuted media reports that former employees – who both worked at the Shanghai Shen-mei Beverage and Food bottling plant, a joint venture with the US soft-drink giant – were suspected of bribing officials. "This matter does not involve bribery of government officials, but instead allegations that the former employees extracted kickbacks from suppliers and embezzled from the bottler," Kaerhoeg said in a statement. He added that the first employee left the company in May, after police began their investigation, while the second had left Shanghai Shen-mei in early 2008. Both former employees were local mid-level managers working in the bottler’s marketing department. Coca-Cola, based in Atlanta, operates 38 bottling plants in China, employing more than 30,000 people.