Black Immigrant Daily News

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Chinese billionaire and JD.com founder Richard Liu agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a former University of Minnesota student who alleged he raped her in her Minneapolis apartment after a night of dinner and drinks with wealthy Chinese executives in 2018, attorneys for both sides announced late Saturday.

A settlement amount was not disclosed.

Richard Liu, who stepped down as the CEO of Beijing-based e-commerce company JD.com this year amid increased government scrutiny of China’s technology industry, has denied raping the woman, Jingyao Liu, and prosecutors never filed criminal charges. A joint statement from attorneys for both sides called the encounter “a misunderstanding.”

“The incident between Ms. Jingyao Liu and Mr. Richard Liu in Minnesota in 2018 resulted in a misunderstanding that has consumed substantial public attention and brought profound suffering to the parties and their families,” the joint statement said. “Today, the parties agreed to set aside their differences, and settle their legal dispute in order to avoid further pain and suffering caused by the lawsuit.”

The settlement was announced just two days before the civil trial was set to begin Monday in a Minneapolis courtroom. On Friday, a jury of seven men and five women were picked to hear the case.

Richard Liu is a celebrity in China, part of a generation of entrepreneurs who created the country’s internet, e-commerce, mobile phone and other technology industries since the late 1990s. Forbes estimated his wealth at $10.9 billion on Saturday.

Jingyao Liu alleges the attack happened in 2018 while Richard Liu was in Minneapolis for a weeklong residency in the University of Minnesota’s doctor of business administration China program, geared toward high-level executives in China.

Jingyao Liu, a Chinese citizen, was at the university on a student visa and was a volunteer in the program at the time. The Associated Press does not generally name people alleging sexual assault, but Jingyao Liu has agreed to be identified publicly.

Jingyao Liu was 21 and Richard Liu was in his mid-40s at the time, the lawsuit said. They are not related.

Richard Liu, also known as Liu Qiangdong, was arrested on suspicion of felony rape in August 2018, but prosecutors said the case had “profound evidentiary problems” and declined to file criminal charges.

Jingyao Liu sued Richard Liu and JD.com in 2019, alleging sexual assault and battery, along with false imprisonment.

The case drew widespread attention at a time when the #MeToo movement was gaining traction in China. Richard Liu’s supporters and opponents waged aggressive public relations campaigns on Chinese social media; censors shut down some accounts that supported Jingyao Liu for “violating regulations.”

Jingyao Liu said in her lawsuit that she had to withdraw from classes in fall 2018 and seek counseling and treatment. Her attorney said she has since graduated but has post-traumatic stress disorder. She sought compensatory as well as punitive damages from Richard Liu.

Her lawsuit said she was seeking more than $50,000, a standard figure that must be listed in Minnesota if a plaintiff intends to seek any larger amount. She was expected to ask a jury to award much more.

On the night of the alleged attack, according to the lawsuit, Richard Liu and other executives went to a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis and one of the men invited Jingyao Liu at Richard Liu’s request.

She felt coerced to drink as the powerful men toasted her, and Richard Liu said she would dishonor him if she did not join in, her lawsuit claimed.

According to text messages reviewed by The Associated Press and Jingyao Liu’s interviews with police, she said that after the dinner Richard Liu pulled her into a limousine and groped her despite her protests. She said he raped her at her apartment. At one point, she texted a friend: “I begged him don’t. But he didn’t listen.”

Her friend notified police, who went to her apartment. Jingyao Liu told one officer, “I was raped but not that kind of rape,” according to police. When asked to explain, she changed the subject and said Richard Liu was famous and she was afraid. She told the officer that the sex was “spontaneous” and she did not want police to get involved.

Police said they released Richard Liu because “it was unclear if a crime had actually taken place.” In a later interview with an investigator, Richard Liu said the sex was consensual and the woman “enjoyed the whole process very much.”

Jingyao Liu told a police sergeant that she wanted to talk with Richard Liu’s attorney and threatened to go to the media if she did not, according to police. Richard Liu’s former attorney recorded the phone call, in which Jingyao Liu said she didn’t want the case to be in the newspaper and “I just need payment money and apologise and that’s all.”

A recording of the phone call was expected to be played as evidence at trial. Surveillance videos from the restaurant, the restaurant’s exterior and the halls of the woman’s apartment complex were also expected to be played for jurors.

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Cancer patient PC Zelia Castello (right) musters a smile with family members who accompanied her to the Piarco airport, early on Sunday morning, as she left for India for bone-marrow transplant surgery.

EVEN as she left for India on Sunday morning for life-saving surgery, police constable Zelia Christiana Castello, 27, who is battling cancer, made a last minute appeal for help.

“Please TT, my life is in your hands. Without the funds to complete the surgery, I could die.”

Castello left TT on Sunday morning, bound for India, with a mixed sense of optimism and trepidation.

Optimism that the bone marrow transplant surgery she must undergo will be successful, but apprehension that the money needed to save her life will not be sufficient or get to her on time.

Woefully short of the $1.4 million to offset the cost of her treatment, Castello said the Apollo Hospital in India has bent backwards to take her in because her situation is dire.

The money collected through fundraisers, a First Citizens bank account: 2283611, plus US$3,000 through a GoFundMe account, is only enough to start the process.

The disease has left the mother of one unable to work as a Municipal Police officer at the Siparia Regional Corporation where she was last assigned. After she got ill, she was told her insurance policy does not cover cancer.

“I have been under some financial strain because cancer medication is expensive.”

First diagnosed in January 2021 with cancer of the lymphatic system, a part of the body’s germ-fighting immune system, Castello was being treated at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).

However, her cancer progressed to stage four, requiring urgent bone marrow transplant, which is not available in TT.

“Chemo puts the cancer to sleep. It stays in the body for one month. As soon as the chemo wears off, the cancer wakes back up. My last treatment was eight weeks ago and doctors said there is nothing more they can do for me here.

“All the symptoms have returned: body pains, muscle spasms. I can’t even hold my spoon to eat. My hands shake like a leaf.

“My lymph nodes are swollen, my neck, everywhere is starting to swell up. I can’t hold on much longer, I really need to leave for treatment,” she said. She revealed having to cancel arrangements to leave in early September, owing to the lack of funds.

“Without the treatment, “there is every indication that I could die.”

Her Point Fortin family woke up early on Sunday to pray with her and send her off with optimism, that somehow she will receive the financial help for the surgery.

The first procedure she will need when she gets to India, she said, is high-dose salvage chemotherapy, which will be done privately.

A US$15,000 down payment had to be made for this aggressive form of chemotherapy before the transplant can be done. This involves removing the patient’s bone marrow, clearing out the cancer cells and re-implanting it.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

El gobernador de Florida (EE.UU.), Ron DeSantis, ha lanzado una advertencia a los saqueadores que quieran aprovecharse de la situación después del paso del huracán Ian por el estado, informan medios locales.

Durante una rueda de prensa el viernes, el gobernador afirmó que los propietarios de viviendas tienen derecho a disparar a posibles saqueadores tras la llegada Ian. La tormenta provocó inundaciones, cortes de electricidad y destrucción masiva en Florida, mientras que el balance de víctimas mortales aumentó a 77 este sábado.

“Ni siquiera piensen en saquear. Ni siquiera piensen en aprovecharse de la gente en esta situación de vulnerabilidad”, destacó DeSantis, instando a mantener la ley y el orden.

En algunas zonas del estado afectadas por el huracán se han reportado saqueos esporádicos. “Les puedo decir que en el estado de Florida nunca se sabe lo que les puede esperar detrás de la casa de alguien, y yo no querría arriesgarme si fuera ustedes, dado que somos un estado con la Segunda Enmienda”, aclaró.

El gobernador también comentó que vio un letrero en un negocio tapiado en la localidad de Punta Gorda, que decía: “Usted saquea, nosotros disparamos”. La Segunda Enmienda a la Constitución de EE.UU. otorga el derecho a la población estadounidense a poseer y portar armas.

Por su parte, el jefe de Policía del condado de Lee, Carmine Marceno, también advirtió a las personas que decidan aprovecharse de “este terrible acontecimiento” que se lo piensen dos veces.

“Cuando digo tolerancia cero, tolerancia cero significa que te perseguiremos, te rastrearemos, e irás a la cárcel. Si tienes suerte“, agregó Marceno.

Noticia original de RT en Español

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