Richard Liu, the billionaire founder and CEO of one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, was arrested in Minneapolis late Friday on suspicion of sexual misconduct, according to police.
JD.com said in a statement Sunday on Chinese social media that Liu was falsely accused while on a business trip in the United States. The company said police did not find evidence of wrongdoing and Liu will continue his trip as planned.
Liu was released without bail around 4 p.m. Saturday, according to Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder. He said that it was an “active investigation” but that no formal complaint had been filed. He declined to provide further details.
JD.com is China’s second-largest online shopping site after Alibaba.
Liu founded the company about two decades ago. JD has been listed on the Nasdaq since 2014 and has grown to around $45 billion valuation. The site sells everything from appliances and apparel to groceries and has a sprawling logistics network for quick delivery.
Major investors include Walmart, which owns a 10% stake, and Chinese tech giant Tencent, which holds 18%, according JD’s latest annual report.
The business has made a fortune for Liu, who started his first e-commerce website in 2004. Bloomberg estimates his net worth to be about $7.3 billion.
He owns nearly 16% of the company’s shares and controls just under 80% of its voting rights, giving him huge sway over key decisions.
Google recently made a $550 million investmentin the Beijing-based company. The two tech firms plan to join forces to sell goods online across Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe in order to better compete with rivals like Amazon and Alibaba.
JD has ambitious plans to take on Western markets. Liu told The Financial Times earlier this year that JD plans to challenge Amazon in Europe as early as 2019.
The Chinese company has a research center in Silicon Valley that focuses on machine learning and AI, according to its website.
— CNN’s Jethro Mullen, Serenitie Wang and Sherisse Pham contributed to this report.
