China's Tencent says it fired more than 100 employees over corruption in 2022

HONG KONG - Tencent Holdings, Asia’s biggest internet company, on Monday said it fired more than 100 employees for violating law and company policies in 2022, citing reasons including suspected bribery and embezzlement.

In a statement on its social network WeChat, the Shenzhen-based company said incidents spanned more than 70 cases across business lines as varied as video games, livestreaming and advertising, and that it had reported more than 10 people to law enforcement authorities.

The disclosure comes after Tencent’s founder Pony Ma in a townhall last month said serious “corruption” issues had been discovered within the company and mismanagement was draining the company’s vitality.

To promote transparency, Tencent has published an annual report in most of the past few years in which it recounts the number and details of corruption cases found within the company that year. Such cases typically involve bribery, embezzlement and collusion.

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In the most serious case publicised on Monday, Tencent said an employee received a bribe from another company and subsequently sentenced to three years in prison. Six other cases highlighted also resulted in prison sentences.

“There is an increase in the number of cases and people involved this year as compared with 2021,” the firm said. “Tencent’s anti-cheating investigation department has taken stronger measures against these internal issues such as corruption and cheating.”

In January last year, Tencent publicised more than 50 corruption cases where close to 70 employees were fired.