The former head of NetEase’s esports division and the former CEO of NetEase Games have been arrested on money laundering and bribery charges. Along with former executives Xiang Liang and Jin Yucheng, several other people who worked for the company were reportedly arrested on corruption charges.
As noted by Game Developer, the Chinese publication Leifeng reported that the former employees in question may have laundered between 800 million and 1 billion yuan ($111 million to $139 million). NetEase would only confirm to Bloomberg Law that police are investigating possible corruption. The company is said to have fired nine employees for alleged bribery.
Several external parties were also involved, according to Yicai Global. The publication notes that, according to an internal memo, NetEase will refuse to do business with 27 companies that have been linked to the alleged fraud and corruption.
NetEase is behind such projects as Diablo Immortal and Naraka: Bladepoint (the latter of which has an average of over 109,000 players on Steam at any given time). Next up are two free shooters based on major franchises, namely Marvel Rivals and Destiny: Rising.
White-collar crimes are not that uncommon in the gaming industry. Last year, Yuji Naka, co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay just over $1.1 million after admitting to insider trading.
