China’s tech giants seem to have a big corruption problem on their hands, as Baidu and Didi are firing dozens of employees in connection with corruption allegations.
Baidu, whose paid listing scheme was previously involved in healthcare industry scandals, has fired 14 staffs linked to 12 internal corruption cases. According to a leaked internal email, the employees engaged in those corruption cases had crossed the company’s “red line.” The company said that it will transfer some of the cases to the police for further investigation.
Specifically, a Baidu intern was found downloading a vast amount of company files and uploading them to external servers. Other Baidu’s cases seem to involve staffs trying to cheat the company’s overtime compensation and reimbursement policies.
Didi, China’s largest ride-hailing company, recently also fired 29 of its employees for “serious disciplinary violation,” according to the company’s WeChat account. Ten employees among them have been referred to the justice authorities.
“Didi reiterates that we will take a zero-tolerance strategy towards cheating behaviors,” Didi said in a statement.
Last month, smartphone maker Xiaomi has also recently declared two corruption cases, according to a leaked internal email. In one case, an employee from the marketing department named Zhao Qian had been sentenced to jail for accepting bribery from Xiaomi suppliers.
Earlier this year, debt-saddled bike-sharing startup Ofo announced the investigation of eight corruption cases, four of which have been accepted by the country’s judiciary authorities.