WASHINGTON: Chinese e-commerce billionaire Liu Qiangdong — also known as Richard Liu — was briefly arrested in the midwestern US city of Minneapolis over allegations of criminal sexual conduct, authorities said.
Records from Hennepin County Jail showed Liu, founder and CEO of Chinese online retail giant JD.com, was arrested over the misconduct allegations late Friday night and released Saturday afternoon.
The Minneapolis Police Department said the investigation remained active and would not confirm details of the arrest or the allegations against the 45-year-old Liu.
“The individual was arrested Friday evening and released Saturday afternoon. He was released pending formal complaint,” Public Information Officer John Elder told AFP.
In the state of Minnesota, “criminal sexual conduct” encompasses a broad spectrum of nonconsensual sexual activity.
In a statement posted on Chinese social media network Weibo, JD.com confirmed that Liu had been arrested over what it described as a false allegation during a business trip.
The statement, contradicting US police, added authorities found no evidence of misconduct and released Liu to continue his trip.
Founded in 1998, the Fortune Global 500 company is China’s second-largest e-commerce firm and an aggressive competitor of Alibaba.
The company says it offers a “one stop” shopping experience to over 300 million active customers in China, with same- and next day-delivery as standard.
In June, Google announced it would invest more than half a billion dollars into JD.com as part of a move to expand retail services around the world.
The firms will marry JD’s supply chain and logistics experience with Google technology to create “next generation” personalized retail in regions including Southeast Asia, the US and Europe, both companies said in a statement.
Chinese billionaire arrested in US over sexual misconduct allegations
Chinese billionaire arrested in US over sexual misconduct allegations
- Founded in 1998, the Fortune Global 500 company is China’s second-largest e-commerce firm and an aggressive competitor of Alibaba
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
