Liu was arrested in Minnesota on Friday and released on Saturday

Chinese billionaire and CEO of JD.com, Richard Liu, has been arrested for criminal sexual misconduct.

According to the Guardian, Chinese billionaire Richard Liu was arrested for criminal sexual misconduct in Minnesota.

Liu, the CEO and Founder of Chinese retail giant JD.com, was arrested on Friday in Minnesota and released at 4pm on Saturday.

JD.com has a net worth of $7.9bn, according to Forbes and is a rival to Alibaba.

Hennepin county sheriff’s office said the billionaire was “released pending complaint”.

Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder added that the investigation was ongoing but did not provide details of Liu’s arrest.

In a statement, JD.com said the businessman was falsely accused.

“During a business trip to the United States, Mr Liu was questioned by police in Minnesota in relation to an unsubstantiated accusation,” the company said. “The local police quickly determined there was no substance to the claim against Mr Liu, and he was subsequently able to resume his business activities as originally planned.”

According to CNBC, Longwei Xu, a guest at Liu’s penthouse party in Australia was convicted of sexual assault in 2015. Liu has since tried to distance himself from the incident.