After news broke last week about NetEase employees being arrested on suspicion of money laundering and bribery, details have started to crop up in one of the most baffling crime stories in recent gaming history.
The story starts to come together through various reports from different Chinese news outlets, and the tally so far seems to be at 9 arrests and around $139 million laundered.
NetEase has made a name for itself in recent years, with titles like Once Human, Marvel Rivals, and the upcoming Destiny: Rising under its belt.
According to Yicai Global and Leiphone, the marketing departments are at the center of the case.
General marketing manager Xiang Lang has been implicated in the money laundering scheme, and several subordinates are under investigation for purchasing traffic to boost NetEase products on social media platforms.
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The articles also name former distribution and marketing director Jin Yuchen as part of the case, which allegedly involves up to 27 companies that remain unnamed thus far.
The exact figures for the money laundered by NetEase employees remain disputed, with sources ranging from 800 million to 2 billion yuan (approximately $111 million to $278 million).
The more widely accepted estimate, as reported by Game Developer, is around the 1 million yuan mark, or $138.6 million.
So far, it appears the arrests have been mostly contained to the marketing and distribution divisions, which should not substantially affect the development pace of the games under the NetEase umbrella.
The company has remained cagey about details, but a leaked internal memo translated by Eurogamer confirms that NetEase has let nine employees go for bribery.
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To drive the point home, NetEase has changed company screensavers to the company’s compliance rules.
Famous Gaming Arrests
While the gaming industry is no stranger to encounters with the law, these situations typically revolve around players rather than developers.
Last year, members of a hacker group that hit Capcom in a ransomware attack in 2020 were arrested in a major pan-European operation between France, Spain, Czechia, and Latvia.
At the same time, developer arrests have had illustrious targets, such as Sonic creator Yuji Naka in 2022. Naka’s case involved insider trading of Square Enix shares.
His first arrest involved purchasing $20,000 of company shares in anticipation of the Dragon Quest mobile announcement.
Rather than learning his lesson, Yuji Naka doubled down by investing over $830,000 in a company contracted by Square Enix to make Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, again before the announcement broke.
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