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The undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota who accused Chinese billionaire Richard Liu of raping brought a civil suit against the chief executive of e-commerce giant JD.com and the company itself. even, seeking damages nearly four months after prosecutors had decided not to support criminal charges.
Jingyao Liu, a 21-year-old student at the time, accused the Chinese company, and her staff played a key role in the alleged August rape while Liu was pursuing a doctoral program in business administration at the time. ;university.
A public relations officer reportedly bought 32 bottles of wine for over 3,600 USD (NZD 5385) with a credit card from a company during a dinner leading to the incident, then would have paid the dinner sticker with the same business card, according to the complaint.
Another woman affiliated with JD boarded the limousine while the CEO reportedly fumbled and imposed himself on the student.
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According to the lawsuit filed in Hennepin County Court in Minnesota, Jingyao Liu claims to have forcibly badaulted her apartment after drinking her at the professional networking dinner with more than 15,000 people. a dozen Chinese leaders. After the police arrived at the apartment to investigate, Liu reportedly attempted to intimidate her into an exchange recorded on police body cameras, according to the lawsuit.
AP
A photo of the police of Chinese billionaire Liu Qiangdong, also known as Richard Liu, arrested in 2018 in Minneapolis for suspicion of criminal badual behavior.
"What is going on?" Liu said in Mandarin, bringing the complainant "to fear not only for her own safety, but also for that of her family in China".
Liu, his lawyers and JD denied having acted wrongly.
"We have not yet reviewed the complaint and we will not comment on the ongoing litigation," Liu's lawyer Jill Brisbois said in an email. "But, given the Hennepin County Attorney's refusal to file a complaint against our client and our belief in his innocence, we are confident that this action is baseless and that it will be vigorously defended against it."
The rape charges have been on JD.com's shares since their release in September. Liu's disproportionate control of voting rights closely tied the firm's fate to his own. In China, he is seen as a visionary founder and the driving force behind one of the country's most successful Internet companies.
Bloomberg announced this month that JD.com is planning major workforce reductions and canceling some job offers as the Chinese eCommerce giant strives to revive its morale. drop and control his losses.
In the civil suit, Jingyao Liu and his lawyers reiterated many previously reported allegations of the controversial night in Minnesota and added some new ones.
Just before the start of the courses for the fall semester of 2018, the student was invited to participate as a "volunteer" in the doctoral program in Business Administration (DBA) of the University, who speaks to "influential and influential Chinese executives". She was invited by Tony Haitao Cui, badociate dean of the global DBA program, who did not explain that "almost all" volunteers "were women and young women while almost all or all student executives were men and people of average age, "according to the suit.
Jingyao Liu was working as a volunteer at the reception of the Carlson School of Management of the University on August 29 when she was invited to a group dinner the next night by Charlie Yao, also known as Qiyong Yao, cadre of the DBA program, depending on the costume. Yao got to know her during university jogging sessions and offered her a job in China, but he did not tell her that JD's CEO had specifically asked her to attend dinner.
MARK LENNIHAN / AP
A woman who claimed to have been raped by Liu claimed that he and other wealthy Chinese executives forced her to drink at a dinner party before she was attacked.
In the afternoon of August 30, Liu, who lived in tony Hotel Ivy's penthouse with his wife, Zhang Zetian, accompanied her, along with other family members, to the local airport for a private flight to Minneapolis, said the pursuit. He then joined dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Origami, where Yao asked Jingyao Liu to sit next to JD's CEO at a table of about 15 exclusively male executives.
In addition to the alcohol purchased at the restaurant, the group drank more than 30 bottles of wine purchased by Vivian Yang, or Han Yang, public relations and communications manager at JD, according to the lawsuit. The document also details the store where the wine was purchased and the last four digits of a credit card issued by an alleged company.
Jingyao Liu would have been urged to drink during the toasts by Liu who said she would "dishonor" her if she resisted her guests; she soon grew up impaired.
As dinner wrapped around 9:11 pm, Jingyao Liu was headed to a limousine that JD had hired for the week for around $ 18,000. She was accompanied by Yang's CEO and the other woman, Alice Zhang.
Yang asked the driver to take them to a mansion rented by another DBA program manager. During the trip, the CEO "began groping and physically forcing the plaintiff," according to the complaint.
When they arrived at the mansion and Jingyao Liu realized that she had not been taken to her home, she pleaded in English: "I want to go home."
During his trip to his apartment, the CEO allegedly fumbled while the student begged him to stop. Zhang allegedly turned the mirror so that the driver could not see what was happening behind him.
When the general manager and the student arrived at his apartment, he entered, undressed and lay on his bed, naked, according to the suit. She never consented to any badual acts and repeatedly asked her to stop, but he would have mastered it. She then secretly sent a message via WeChat to another volunteer to tell her that she had been badually badaulted. he called 911 to report the emergency and the Minneapolis police arrived around 3:10 am.
After the student opened his door, the police found the general manager lying on the bed, wearing a t-shirt but bare of the waist, according to the suit.
While he was handcuffed and abducted, Liu "clearly tried to intimidate" the student by looking at her and angrily declaring, "What are you doing crazy?" in Mandarin. "Jingyao Liu said at the time that she was raped and that the CEO was very rich and powerful.
She "told the policewoman that she feared so much for her immediate safety as for what might happen to her in the future when she will be legally obliged to return to China." All of the above appears on filmed images, "said the prosecution.
In December, the local prosecutor, who refused to lay charges against Liu, said that he had made his decision after watching a surveillance video, text messages, a police camera camera and witness statements.
"It became clear that we could not bear the burden of proof and that, therefore, we could not lay charges," said Hennepin County Attorney Mike at the time. Freeman.
Jingyao Liu is claiming "substantial compensatory damages" and will also pursue punitive damages against Liu and JD.com, according to a statement by his lawyers.
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