JD’s Richard Liu faces rape lawsuit

JD.com, China’s number two ecommerce company, made headlines last year in September, when founding CEO Richard Liu (刘强东 Liú Qiángdōng) was arrested on suspicion of rape in Minneapolis. Liu was released without being charged and went back to China. Minneapolis prosecutors announced that they would not file charges in December.

• Now a lawsuit has been filed by the student at the University of Minnesota who accused Richard Liu of rape, the New York Times reports (porous paywall).
• The case identifies the student as Liu Jingyao, adding that “Liu said in the complaint that the experience had caused her to withdraw from all of her classes in the fall and seek professional counseling.”
• A lawyer for Richard Liu alleges that the student “demanded money in exchange for not suing,” but the lawyer representing Liu Jingyao says that this is a lie and that many of Richard Liu’s lawyer’s “descriptions of events were contradicted by witnesses.”

JD.com has seen its business fortunes tumble since the initial rape accusation against its CEO — see our roundup on The China Project, “Trouble at JD — ecommerce winter, or a company adrift?”