startups

A Chinese tech billionaire has been accused of plying a student with drink and then forcing himself on her during a trip …


caption
JD.com CEO Liu Qiangdong.
source
Bobby Yip/Reuters
  • The Minneapolis Star Tribune published
    a long account describing a student’s rape allegation against
    Liu Qiangdong
    , the billionaire founder of Chinese tech firm
    JD.com.
  • Liu was arrested in connection with the claim in
    August, and
    prosecutors are deciding whether to charge him
    .
  • The article, which cites police interviews and text
    messages, offers details of the allegations made by the
    21-year-old student accusing Liu of rape.
  • It describes her claims of being plied with alcohol and
    manoeuvred into a situation where Liu went home with her in his
    private car.
  • It describes her claim of a violent encounter inside
    her apartment, ending with non-consensual sex.
  • Liu has denied these allegations, and his lawyer called
    the Star Tribune story “one-sided.”

A new report has offered the first detailed account of an alleged
rape by JD.com CEO Liu Qiangdong, claiming that the Chinese tech
billionaire forced himself on a student after a night of heavy
drinking in Minnesota.

Citing text messages, police interviews, and other documents,

the Minneapolis Star Tribune
offered a long account of the
woman’s allegations of the night during which she claimed to have
been raped by Liu.

Liu is the founder and CEO of JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce giant
which
recently struck a deal with Google to help it enter the US
market
. He is one of China’s richest men. He has consistently
denied the allegation, and did so again on Monday via a statement
to Business Insider from his attorney.

Read more: Google is helping a Chinese CEO
being investigated for rape to bring his company to the
US


The Star Tribune
reports that the woman was a student from
China who says she volunteered to help with events related to a
high-powered course held at the University of Minnesota for
Chinese executives.

It describes the woman’s allegations of being invited to an
expensive restaurant, separated from her one friend at the event,
being seated next to Liu, and encouraged to drink heavily.

liu qiangdong mugshot

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


An earlier report by the Reuters news agency
said the woman
later described the event as “a trap.”

According to the Star Tribune’s account, the woman asked to leave
at the end of the meal, but was instead picked up Liu’s private
SUV, which eventually took both of them back to her apartment
near campus.


The Star Tribune describes the following further details of the
alleged victim’s allegations:

“The woman unlocked her apartment door and Liu followed inside.

“Inside the apartment, she told police, he pulled off her sweater
over her protests. She said that Liu told her she could be just
like Wendi Deng, the Chinese-born ex-wife of Australian media
executive Rupert Murdoch.

“‘I told him “no” several times,’ she told police. She also told
police that he tried to pull off her skirt and bra, held her arms
and tried to throw her onto her bed.

“‘We were battling against each other on the bed and finally I
escaped from him and went back to the living room and put the bra
back on again,’ she said in the interview. ‘Finally, he just
threw me onto the bed. He was on me. He was heavy. I tried to
push him away. But he was on top of me … and then he raped me.'”

Liu was arrested the following day. He was allowed to leave the
US and return to China while police investigated the incident.
Liu has continued to run JD.com in the meantime.

Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, were handed the
results of a police investigation in late September. They are
considering whether to charge Liu with any crimes.

Jill Brisbois, Liu’s attorney in Minneapolis, told Business
Insider that her client has done nothing wrong.

Her statement, which refers to her client by the more western
name Richard Liu, said: “We are not at liberty to discuss this
investigation nor share evidence with the media right now because
we respect and do not want to interfere with the judicial
process.

“It is unfair for Business Insider to publish a one-sided story
when the prosecutors are still considering the case. Richard
maintains his innocence, has cooperated fully with the
investigation, and was quickly released by police without any
restriction on his travel and without being required to post
bail.

“We believe his innocence will be apparent once a determination
has been made and all evidence is disclosed to the public.”

In response to a renewed request for comment, JD.com repeated a
statement it first issued on September 4, just after Liu was
arrested.

It said: “We were informed that our CEO Richard Qiangdong Liu was
taken into custody by Minneapolis police on August 31, 2018. He
has been released without any charges, and without requirement
for bail. Mr. Liu has returned to work in China.”





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