Chinese tech giant Tencent said Monday it had fired more than a hundred employees for violating company policies, some were handed over to police and later found guilty of bribery and embezzlement.
The Hong Kong-listed company is the world’s leading video game maker and owner of a popular super app WeChat however, has struggled under a sweeping regulatory crackdown on China’s tech sector that was launched in late 2020.
In a statement, the company, which posted its second straight quarterly sales decline in November, said it had found more than 100 employees guilty of violating its anti-fraud policy.
More than 10 have been transferred to China’s public security organ, she added.
“In response to the problems of corruption and fraud within the company, Tencent’s anti-fraud department has further strengthened its operations, investigating and dealing with a number of violations with common problems,” the company said.
“The number of cases and staff being investigated and treated over the course of 2022 has increased compared to 2021,” she added.
The defendants were found to have embezzled company funds and accepted bribes, she added, with a number referred to police and some found guilty in court.
A number of those who have been fired and accused of corruption belonged to the company’s PCG arm, which oversees its vast content output from news to sports to movies.
But they also encompass Tencent’s other businesses, including cloud computing and fintech.
One employee in particular was found guilty of “accepting bribes from non-government employees” and sentenced to three years in prison, the company said.
The company’s CEO, Pony Ma, told an internal staff meeting last month that the level of corruption at the company was “shocking,” state media reported.
Tencent was hit hard by a Beijing crackdown on video games, in which hundreds of companies pledged to remove “politically harmful” content from their products and impose restrictions on minors to meet government demands.
But the company has shown signs of a rebound as its Hong Kong share price has nearly doubled since October 28, when it hit a low not seen since 2017.
The company was also granted its first video game license in 18 months last month, ending a dry spell that had hurt profits at the world’s top games maker.
