Nine NetEase employees have been arrested for alleged money laundering. The group is accused of laundering up to $1 billion Chinese Yuan, or $139 million USD. NetEase is the developer and publisher of games like the upcoming “Marvel Rivals” and “Diablo Immortal.”
According to Leifeng, a Chinese news outlet, General Manager in charge of marketing Xiang Lang and eight employees are accused of this crime. The group allegedly laundered money through contracts with as many as 28 different business partners. These funds were part of existing business deals within the company that totaled roughly $2 billion Yuan. However, given that this is an ongoing investigation the total amount has yet to be fully determined.
The police set up a sting operation to catch these workers by moving their weekly meeting from its typical Guangzhou venue to Hangzhou. The police then detained the suspects as they arrived for a seemingly normal day of work.
Some of these employees also stand accused of purchasing traffic for some of NetEase’s top products.
As it stands, these arrests have not impacted the launch of “Marvel Rivals” slated for December 6th. NetEase also just revealed that Moon Knight will be in the upcoming game.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about the alleged money laundering at NetEase as they become available.
