The former head of NetEase’s esports division and the former general manager of NetEase Games are said to have been arrested on money laundering and bribery charges. In addition to former executives Xiang Liang and Jin Yucheng, several other people who worked at the company were also reportedly arrested on corruption charges.
As pointed out by Game Developer, Chinese media outlet Leifeng is accused of laundering money ranging from 800 million yuan to 1 billion yuan ($111 million to $139 million) by the former employee in question. It was reported that there is. NetEase confirmed to Bloomberg Law only that police are investigating possible corruption. The company is said to have fired nine employees on suspicion of bribery.
Yicai Global said multiple outside individuals were also involved. The media said that NetEase will refuse to do business with 27 companies involved in fraud and corruption allegations, according to an internal memo.
NetEase lags behind the likes of Diablo Immortal and Naraka: Bladepoint (the latter has an average of over 109,000 players on Steam at any given time). Two free-to-play shooters based on major franchises are in development: Marvel Rivals and Destiny: Rising.
White collar crime is not that uncommon in the gaming industry. Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka was given a suspended prison sentence last year for admitting to insider trading and was ordered to pay more than $1.1 million.
