The billionaire founder and chief executive of Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com Inc (JD.O), Richard Liu, was arrested in the US state of Minnesota on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct and later released after what the company said was a false accusation.
JD.com, backed by Walmart Inc (WMT.N), Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, and China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK), said in a statement on Sunday that Liu, whose Chinese name is Liu Qiangdong, was falsely accused. “During a business trip to the United States, Mr Liu was questioned by police in Minnesota in relation to an unsubstantiated accusation,” the company said.
“The local police quickly determined there was no substance to the claim against Mr Liu, and he was subsequently able to resume his business activities as originally planned,” it said.