Chinese billionaire leaves the U.S. despite arrest on suspicion of sexual assault
Chinese billionaire leaves the U.S. despite arrest on suspicion of sexual assault
BEIJING —
Chinese billionaire and tech mogul Richard Qiangdong Liu has returned
to China, Monday three days after Minneapolis police arrested and
detained him on suspicion of sexual assault.
Liu,
the 45-year-old chief executive and founder of the e-commerce giant
JD.com, was released Saturday from the Hennepin County Jail, with
booking records showing no posted bail.
“He has
been released without any charges, and without requirement for bail,”
JD.com spokeswoman Tracy Yang told The Washington Post. “Mr. Liu has
returned to work in China.”
The Minneapolis Police Department had not yet decided Sunday if it will bring charges against Liu, spokesman John Elder told The Washington Post. The alleged assault would be a felony, authorities said, declining to provide further detail.
Liu was in the United States on business when he faced questions about an “unsubstantiated accusation,” according to a statement JD.com posted Sunday to the Chinese social network Weibo.
“The
local police quickly determined there was no substance to the claim
against Mr. Liu,” the statement read, “and he was subsequently able to
resume his business activities as originally planned.”
JD.com declined to elaborate on the event but sent The Post to Liu’s lawyer, who did not respond to requests for comment.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday it had launched an investigation into the circumstances of Liu’s arrest.
Investors flinched slightly at the news Friday of Liu’s arrest, but JD.com stock value had rebounded by the end of the day.
JD.com
is among China’s biggest online retailers and lauds itself as the first
e-commerce company in the country to offer next-day delivery
nationwide.
Liu is known for pushing the company toward “100 percent”
automation and speaking at global conferences about reducing the need
for workers. JD.com is now testing drone deliveries in rural areas and
recently unveiled a robot-run warehouse in Shanghai that can package
200,000 orders per day with the help of only four human engineers.
Google announced in June that it had invested $550 million
in the firm, which plans to expand in the United States and compete
with Amazon. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The
Washington Post.)
The Minneapolis arrest wasn’t the only harsh spotlight on Liu this year.
An
Australian court revealed in July that the chief executive had sought
to conceal information in the wake of a sexual assault that happened
after a 2015 party at his Australian residence, according to the New
York Times.
Longwei Xu, a property developer,
was later convicted of the crime. Liu, who was not accused of
wrongdoing, had asked an Australian court to keep his name from public
view, arguing association with the incident could hurt his business and
marriage to the business executive Zhang Zetian, another celebrity
figure.
The judge denied his request.
As JD.com aims to spread beyond Asia, Liu has lately sought to raise his profile among global business leaders.
He attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for the first time this year and shared parts of his life story at the alpine gathering of executives, politicians and Hollywood celebrities.
Liu
previously ran a chain of computer part stores in Beijing. He told the
Davos crowd he was inspired to start his online shopping platform in
2004 after an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome hit Beijing
and threatened the health of his employees.
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