Late last week, Bloomberg and the Chinese outlet Leifeng reported that several NetEase employees have been arrested for money laundering and bribery. The company is currently developing the Overwatch 2 competitor Marvel Rivals and the mobile game Destiny: Rising.
Leifeng (via Game Developer) alleges that NetEase Games' general manager in charge of marketing and former head of NetEase's esports division, Xiang Lang, has been taken away by the company's internal anti-corruption department for investigation. Other employees who work under Lang are also reportedly under investigation for purchasing traffic to help promote NetEase's top products. NetEase has confirmed to Bloomberg in a statement is that police are investigating the possible corruption.
Another Chinese outlet, yicaiglobal, has also reported that the old head of NetEase Games' distribution and marketing centre, Jin Yuchen, is also under investigation. Aside from NetEase employees, the outlet also alleges that 27 unnamed companies have also been blacklisted due to connections with the laundering scheme.
There have been a few estimates as to the extent of the fraud. Some reports indicate amounts of up to 2 billion yuan ($277.8 million) were involved, but Game Developer reports that the actual price is likely closer to 800 million to 1 billion yuan ($111.4 million to $139.3 million).
Earlier this year, we saw a similar case unfold with Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka, who was fined $1.2 million and given a suspended jail sentence for insider trading. Naka was first arrested back in 2022 while he was still at Square Enix. The main accusation was that he bought shares in Aiming Inc., with the foreknowledge that Square Enix would be collaborating with the studio on Dragon Quest Tactics, a mobile game. Naka was also accused of buying ATeam shares just before it began work on a Final Fantasy 7 mobile game.
In a statement provided to PC Gamer, NetEase confirmed that it has "taken stringent action against two instances of suspected fraud by some employees of the company's Chinese domestic market operations," but said the allegations of money laundering as originally reported are false.
"Both cases are currently under criminal investigation by the relevant authorities and any official findings will become available in the public domain," a NetEase representative said. "At present, as this is the subject of on-going investigation we cannot comment. We would however, like to clarify that the ongoing investigation does not involve ‘money laundering’ as has been reported in some quarters.
"A cornerstone of NetEase Games' guiding principles is to create and uphold a healthy working environment and a business environment characterized by fairness, transparency, and integrity. Whilst we deeply value our team member's contributions and we proactively protect the rights and interests of our employees and business partners alike, we have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of corrupt behaviour."
The company also said the incidents will have no impact on its ongoing games including Marvel Rivals and Destiny Rising.
