Reuters, Minneapolis :
A University of Minnesota student who said she was raped last August by Richard Liu, the chief executive officer of China’s e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc, filed a civil lawsuit against him in a Minneapolis court on Tuesday, nearly four months after prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.
Liu, through his lawyers, maintained his innocence throughout the law enforcement investigation, which ended in December.
The lawsuit filed in Hennepin County court seeks undisclosed damages and names Richard Liu and JD.com as defendants. It also identifies the student for the first time as Liu Jingyao, a Chinese woman who is not related to the JD.com executive.
“Defendant Liu was physically larger in size and significantly stronger than the plaintiff and used his superior size and strength to subdue and rape her,” the court document said.
Richard Liu’s attorney, Jill Brisbois, said in a written statement on Tuesday that she had not yet reviewed the complaint, but “based on the Hennepin County attorney’s declination to charge a case against our client and our belief in his innocence, we feel strongly that this suit is without merit and will vigorously defend against it.”
Peter Walsh, an attorney for JD.com at Hogan Lovells, said in a written statement while they were not prepared to comment at this time, they will vigorously defend against “these meritless claims against the company.”
The student first accused Richard Liu of rape in August when he was visiting the University of Minnesota to attend a doctor of business administration programme directed at executives from China.
Liu, 46, who started JD.com as a humble electronics stall and expanded it into an e-commerce company with 2018 net revenues of $67 billion, was arrested on Aug. 31, but released without charge about 17 hours later.
He soon returned to China and continued his executive role, as prosecutors in Minnesota investigated the rape allegation to determine if criminal charges were warranted.
In December, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman announced he was not charging Richard Liu as there were “profound evidentiary problems which would have made it highly unlikely that any criminal charge could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
