Report: NetEase execs and employees arrested over alleged money laundering

Nine NetEase developers have reportedly been arrested, including a pair of senior executives, according to Bloomberg and Chinese outlet Leifeng.

According to the latter's translated story, the employees laundered what's ultimately estimated to be between 800 million to 1 billion yuan (or $111.4 million-$139.3 million). The studio is currently developing the free-to-play shooters Marvel Rivals and Destiny: Rising.

Per Yicai Global, the two NetEase executives implicated are esports division head Xiang Liang and publishing head Jin Yuchen. The outlet further noted 27 unnamed companies with alleged connections to the laundering scheme have also been blacklisted following these arrests.

Leifeng also reported several NetEase staff were responsible for the purchasing traffic of "multiple [top NetEase] products." Other details have not been shared at this time.

Recent white collar crimes in the game industry

In 2022, several arrests were made over insider trading in the game industry. Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, was arrested over suspicions involving his time at Square Enix, where he was accused of spending 2.8 million yen to buy shares of Aiming before it and Square Enix were revealed to be teaming on Dragon Quest Tact.

Naka was arrested again weeks later over buying stock in Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier developer Ateam, then indicated weeks after that.

Separately from Naka, ex-Square developers Fumiaki Suzuki and Taisuke Sasaki were accused of also buying stock for Aiming ahead of Dragon Quest Tact's reveal. Sasaki was similarly indicted along with Naka in relation to purchasing Ateam stock.

Naka later admitted to insider trading in 2023, and was sentenced to serve two-and-a-half years in prison and fined 171 million yen.