JD.com CEO Liu Qiangdong arrested in US on sexual misconduct allegations

The
mugshot of Liu Qiangdong, the founder and CEO of JD.com, who was
arrested in Minneapolis on suspicion of criminal sexual
conduct.
Hennepin County Sheriff’s
Office via AP

• The founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce company
  JD.com was arrested in Minneapolis on Friday on sexual
  misconduct charges.
• Liu Qiangdong was released about 16 hours later. The
  investigation remains active.
• He had been in the US on a business trip.
• JD.com said the accusations are false and
  unsubstantiated.

Liu Qiangdong, one of the richest men in China, was briefly
arrested during a trip to the US on sexual misconduct
allegations.

Liu, the founder and CEO of the e-commerce company JD.com, was
arrested around 11:30 p.m. on Friday and released shortly after 4
p.m. the following day,
according to Hennepin County Sheriff’s Jail records.

Minneapolis police arrested the 44-year-old on suspicion of
criminal sexual conduct charges, the jail records said. There are
no further details of the alleged incident.

John Elder, a police spokesman, declined to provide any further
details of the case or circumstances of the arrest because the
investigation is still considered active,
according to the Associated Press.

Liu is the 16th richest
person in China.
AP

JD.com on Sunday said the accusations were false and
unsubstantiated. The company didn’t name the charges.

It said in a statement on Chinese
microblogging platform Weibo: “Mr Liu Qiangdong encountered a
false accusation while on business in the US. An
investigation by local police did not find any evidence of
misconduct, and he will continue his trip as planned. We will
take the necessary legal action against false reporting or
rumors.”

Elder also told the
BBC: “There is absolutely no restriction on his travel.
The understanding is that if we need to get in touch with him, we
will be able to do so.”

Liu’s arrest came shortly after he tried to distance himself from
another sexual misconduct scandal. In late July he
said he didn’t know anything about a sexual assault that was
alleged to have taken place at a party he was hosting in Sydney
in 2015. He was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Liu, also known as Richard, has a net worth of $10.8 billion
(£8.4 billion), according
to Forbes. He was named by the Forbes billionaire list as the
16th richest person in China and the 140th richest person in the
world.

JD.com is the second largest Chinese e-commerce company after
Alibaba. The company had 292.5 million active customer accounts
in 2017, and reaped a net profit of 50.8 billion
yuan ($7.8 billion) in FY17,
the company said in its annual statement.

He is the husband of
Zhang Zetian, who at 24 is China’s youngest female
billionaire.