Chinese police have arrested Chen Shaojie, the founder and CEO of videogame livestream platform, DouYu International Holdings Ltd.’s, for alleged illegal pornography and gambling operations, Bloomberg reported.
DouYu is one China’s videogame live streaming services with police from the southwestern city of Chengdu said to have detained Chen on or around November 16, the Wuhan-based company disclosed in a statement Tuesday.
‘The company has not received any official notice of the investigation against Mr. Chen or the reasons for Mr. Chen’s apparent arrest. The Company cannot comment on the nature or expected timeline of subsequent legal proceedings, if any, that may follow,’ DouYu says in the statement.
‘Mr. Chen’s ongoing detention and any subsequent related legal proceedings and enforcement actions against the parties involved may have a material adverse impact on the Company’s reputation, business and results of operations.’
In a post on its official Weibo account on Wednesday, Chengdu police said it had arrested and charged a person surnamed Chen with hosting gambling without fully identifying the defendant.
Xinhua and other official media then reported on the case using the hashtag “DouYu CEO’s Arrest.” The Financial Times reported this month that chinese regulators had begun a probe into pornography and gambling on DouYu’s platform.
The news came two weeks after the Cover News, a state-owned media outlet , reported that Chen had become unreachable, citing unconfirmed reports that Chen was being investigated and had been missing for nearly three weeks.
Chen has served as DouYu’s director and chief executive officer since May 2014. He is also the founder of Shenzhen Zhangmenren Network Technology Co., Ltd. and served as its general manager from May 2008 to March 2010.
He was also the founder of Acfun, an online video platform in China and served as its chief executive officer from March 2010 to March 2012
Chen’s disappearance came about five months after the Cyberspace Administration of China launched an onsite inspection of DouYu to investigate what it called “serious” problems related to the platform, including alleged pornography and “vulgar” content, according to a May statement from the internet watchdog.
In December, a district court in Chengdu fined three top DouYu influencers a combined RMB1.65 million ($231,000) for making nearly RMB120 million from hosting gambling on the platform, according to a report in state-run Sichuan Legal News.
