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. So far, all 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 for how much cash employees allegedly laundered. Some reports indicate up to 2 billion yuan ($277.8 million), 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.
So far, there's no clear indication that any further action has been taken against the individuals involved. However, an internal memo to staff (via Eurogamer) announced that nine staff members had been let go for alleged bribery. The names of those involved have seemingly since been removed from NetEase's internal systems, and company computer screensavers have been changed to remind staff of NetEase's compliance protocols.
