E-Commerce Billionaire Richard Liu Sued by way of Rape Accuser

Nearly four months after prosecutors in Minnesota decided in opposition to filing crook expenses against JD.Com founder Richard Liu, the Chinese billionaire is facing a civil lawsuit filed with the aid of the student who remaining yr accused him of rape.

The plaintiff, Jingyao Liu, who at the time of the incident changed into a 21-year-vintage undergraduate on the University of Minnesota, filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday in Hennepin County, Minnesota, towards Richard Liu and the e-commerce giant JD.Com Inc. The healthy, classified as a private harm case, is searching for big compensatory damages in addition to punitive damages.

Minnesota prosecutors stated in late December they determined now not to press prison rape charges against Richard Liu because of inadequate proof, concluding a 3-month assessment of the pretty watched case. Prosecutors stated they’d issue in proving the case “past an inexpensive doubt.”

Prosecutors have currently said they’re open to revisiting their December decision now not to rate Richard Liu if they’re provided with “compelling extra statistics,” in step with an assertion Caixin acquired from Florin Roebig P.A., one of the law firms representing the plaintiff.

 

Richard Liu, forty five, also referred to as Liu Qiangdong in Chinese was arrested in Minneapolis on Aug. 31 after being accused of rape following a boozy dinner throughout a university program he was attending. He changed into launched tomorrow without bail and become allowed to go back to China.

According to a criticism filed Tuesday in a Hennepin County court docket, Jingyao Liu accused Richard Liu of raping her in her apartment after a business networking dinner with greater than a dozen male Chinese executives, Bloomberg suggested. After police arrived on the condo to investigate, Richard Liu allegedly tried to intimidate her in an alternate recorded at the officers’ body cameras, leading the plaintiff “to fear not best for her own protection but also for the protection of her family in China.”

Richard Liu, JD.Com, and their lawyers have denied any wrongdoing.

“We have not yet reviewed the criticism and aren’t going to comment on pending litigation,” Richard Liu’s attorney Jill Brisbois stated in a Tuesday statement. “But based totally at the Hennepin County Attorney’s declination to rate a case against our client and our perception in his innocence, we sense strongly that this healthy is without merit and could vigorously defend in opposition to it.”

Peter Walsh, a legal professional for JD.Com, stated the employer isn’t in a function to remark at the moment, however “will vigorously shield those meritless claims against the company.”

Attorneys for Jingyao Liu, who had remained nameless till the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, stated they would maintain to searching for justice within the be counted.

Haunted with the aid of horrific information together with the rape allegation in opposition to Richard Liu, JD.Com’s Nasdaq-listed shares took a nosedive final yr, losing as plenty as 60% of their value from a January high. The Chinese tech massive’s inventory fee rebounded in past due December after prosecutors announced they might not document criminal expenses.