Just 48 hours before the beginning of his trial for rape, Richard Liu, the Chinese billionaire and founder of a successful E-commerce site, JD.com, considered to be the Amazon of China, reached an out of court settlement agreement with Jingyao Liu (no relation), a former Minnesota student who accused him of raping her during a celebration party in 2018.
Jingyao Liu, 25, filed a lawsuit against the tech billionaire, accusing him of defiling her in 2018 at her apartment in Minneapolis. According to the lawsuit, Richard Liu followed her to her house after a dinner party with a lot of booze, that other rich Chinese executives also attended. Jingyao Liu was working at the party with the job of “entertaining” the guests, and she was the only woman.
At the time of the alleged assault, Richard Liu was in the city attending an educational program at the University of Minnesota. Jingyao Liu was at the University on a student visa and volunteered to work for the educational program.
This year, Richard Liu resigned as the CEO of his billion-dollar tech company, JD.com, denying all allegations that he had raped the woman. Jingyao Liu did not file criminal charges against her accused rapist.
Lawyers from both sides released a joint statement on Saturday, terming the encounter as an unfortunate misunderstanding. Surveillance footage from Jingyao’s apartment shows them riding up in the elevator and going into her apartment hand in hand.
The two parties settled just two days before the trial started in Minneapolis. A jury of 12 would have presided over the case if it had gone to trial.
The joint statement said that the unfortunate incident had been devastating to both parties and their families and that the two had decided to settle their differences and come to an agreement, so that they could put an end to the suffering caused by the lawsuit.
This year, Richard Liu sold all his JD.com shares for almost $1 billion to distance himself from the company.
The tech billionaire is estimated to be worth $10.9 billion, as he was a part a group of entrepreneurs who created China’s technology industry in the 1990s.
Earlier in the year, Jingyao attended a meeting with executives from JD.com, at which Liu was present, telling them that Liu had touched her inappropriately in his car and proceeded to force himself on her in her apartment. A month after the incident, police took Liu into custody.
In 2019, Jingyao filed a lawsuit against the CEO and the company. The charges included battery, rape and false imprisonment which sought over $50,000 in damages. However, according to authorities, they could not keep Liu in custody because it was unclear if a crime had happened.
During a later interview, Liu, married with two children, said their sexual relations had been consensual.
The story gained attention in both the US and China, with many people taking sides, for and against the alleged perpetrator and alleged victim. Social media in both countries is full of accusations and insults against both, as well as support to both sides.
Now that they have settled out of court to calm things down, hopefully the social media chatter will cool down too. Both of their lives have been turned upside down.