Shanghai police Monday said "several" employees of a Coca-Cola Co. bottling plant were being investigated for allegedly taking bribes.

"Some" people involved in the case had been handed over to the local procuratorate, a police spokesman said.

He would not say how many people from the Shanghai Shenmei Beverage and Food Co. were under investigation or the amount of money involved, which media reports said could be up to 10 million yuan (1.46 million U.S. dollars).

A Shanghai Shenmei spokesperson said Shanghai police were investigating former employee(s) of the company

Shanghai Shenmei was founded in 1987 and is now Coca-Cola's largest bottling plant in Asia.

But the company declined to comment on the amount of the alleged bribes or media reports that a marketing executive was involved.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2009)