On November 21, 2018, Reuters reported that Minneapolis prosecutors were weighing whether to move forward in the rape allegation involving JD.com founder and Chief Executive Richard Liu after his August arrest and release in the United States.
The case centers on conflicting accounts from Liu and a 21-year-old University of Minnesota student who said the Chinese billionaire assaulted her after a dinner in late August. Police initially concluded no crime had occurred when they responded around 3 a.m. to an assault call, but the woman later told investigators she had been raped and Liu was arrested that night.
Liu, also known as Liu Qiangdong, has denied wrongdoing through his representatives. His lawyer, Jill Brisbois, said in an emailed response that his innocence would become clear once more evidence was disclosed. She also criticized Reuters for publishing what she called unsubstantiated information from anonymous sources.
Wil Florin, who was hired four days after the alleged rape to represent the woman, said the case was straightforward and that Liu used force to have non-consensual sex. He said the woman’s early hesitation to press charges was understandable, adding that fear, reluctance and confusion are common after sexual assault.
According to the report, Hennepin County prosecutors were considering several issues, including the woman’s initial reluctance, the police finding that no crime had occurred at first, and the different versions of what happened that night. Legal experts told Reuters that a victim’s first reaction can affect a prosecutor’s decision, though cases can still be built with expert testimony and other evidence.
The allegations could also affect JD.com, whose shares had already fallen by more than a third since Liu’s arrest. Liu built the company from a small electronics stall into an e-commerce giant that reported 2017 net revenue of $55.7 billion and counted Google, Walmart and Tencent among its partners.
Reuters said Liu, then 45, had been in Minnesota for a doctor of business administration program aimed at Chinese executives. University materials listed other participants including Tencent chief executive Ma Huateng and Excellence Real Estate Group chairman Li Hua.
The report described the night as beginning at a Japanese restaurant dinner hosted by Liu, where the student said she became drunk and needed help getting home. She told police that Liu’s assistant Alice Zhang helped her into a car with Liu inside, and that Liu began touching her in the back seat after telling Zhang, “Don’t interrupt me.”
When the car reached her apartment building, Liu reportedly spent about four hours inside the woman’s apartment. The student told police he showered, lay naked on her bed and tried to force her into the shower. She said she resisted and later told police he held her down and raped her while some of her clothes were still on. She also said she preserved semen on her sheets as evidence.
The day after the incident, another assistant, Vivian Yang, contacted the woman. Reuters reviewed WeChat messages that Florin said were authentic, showing the student saying she wanted “justice” and was considering a lawyer. Yang then proposed that the woman meet Li Hua, chairman of Excellence Real Estate Group, as a possible intermediary.
The woman rejected that idea and said she only wanted to speak with Liu, with a friend present. Yang later arranged a meeting at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, but by the time Liu arrived the woman was already giving a statement to police. Officers arrested him around 11 p.m.
Liu was released on Sept. 1 at about 4 p.m. pending investigation and flew back to China hours later on a private jet. China does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, making his return significant for any future prosecution effort.
Li did not respond to requests for comment, and University of Minnesota officials declined to discuss the matter because of student privacy law. Reuters also said it could not determine exactly what Li knew about the attempted meeting or whether he agreed to act as a peacemaker.
Additional reporting by Blake Morrison in New York, Sue-Lin Wong in Shenzhen and the Shenzhen newsroom.
