JD.com sinks after CEO Liu Qiangdong sexual-misconduct allegation

Richard Liu, CEO and founder of China’s e-commerce company JD.com, attends a session of the second annual World Internet ConferenceREUTERS/Aly Song

• JD.com shares dropped after CEO Liu Qiangdong was detained in the US on sexual-misconduct allegations. 
• The company told Business Insider that Liu had been falsely accused.
• Liu has returned to China. 
• Watch JD.com trade in real-time here.

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Shares of JD.com dropped 4% ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell after its CEO was detained in the US over the weekend on sexual-misconduct allegations. 

Liu Qiangdong, CEO of the Chinese e-commerce giant, was arrested on Friday night over a sexual-misconduct allegation during a business trip in Minneapolis. Hennepin County Sheriff jail records  show that he was released in 16 hours without requiring bail.

JD.com told Business Insider on Sunday that Liu had been falsely accused, and that it “will take the necessary legal action against false reporting or rumors.” On Monday evening local time, the company said in a statement on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo that Liu has “returned to China to continue work as normal.” 

Liu, with a net worth of $10.8 billion, was listed as the 16th-richest person in China and the 140th-richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

Last Month, JD.com, the second-largest Chinese e-commerce company after Alibaba, reported a loss of $0.23 per share on revenue of $18.5 billion, missing the Bloomberg consensus of a $0.12 per share gain on revenue of $19.31 billion.

JD.com shares were down 30% this year through Monday.

Ethel Jiang/Business Insider