Chinese billionaire Richard Liu who founded the one of the largest Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com was reportedly arrested by Minneapolis police Friday night. He was suspicious of criminal sexual misconduct.
However, he was released later stating that he was falsely accused. The Minneapolis Police Department said the investigation remained active and would not confirm details of the arrest against the CEO, Liu.
“The individual was arrested Friday evening and released Saturday afternoon. He was released pending formal complaint,” Public Information Officer John Elder stated.
JD.com is China’s second-largest online shopping platform after Alibaba. Liu founded the venture about two decades ago. The company has been listed on the Nasdaq since 2014 and has reached to around $45 billion valuations.
The platform sells almost everything from appliances and apparel to groceries and has a wide logistics network for quick delivery. JD also has a research center in Silicon Valley that focuses on machine learning and AI.
Recently, Liu tried to distance himself from a sexual assault that was alleged to have taken place after a 2015 party at his penthouse in Australia. A guest at the party, Longwei Xu, was convicted of sexual assault. Mr. Xu, a property development professional, was found guilty of seven charges, including having sex with his accuser without her consent.
The statement issued by JD.com said, “During a business trip to the United States, Mr. Liu was questioned by police in Minnesota in relation to an unsubstantiated accusation. 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.”
Liu has not been charged with a crime or accused of any guilt in that case. But he tried to get an Australian court to prevent the release of his name. In July, a judge rejected his request for a suppression order.