Huawei Sales Exec Detained Over Bribery Allegations

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A senior sales executive from the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment manufacturer has been placed under investigation by the Chinese authorities for bribery.

Huawei has confirmed media reports that Teng Hongfei (滕鸿飞), formerly its head of consumer sales in the greater China region, has been detained by Chinese police over bribery allegations.

Teng was considered a rising star within Huawei, having grabbed one of the telecom giant’s top honours for its internal employees in March this year.

Prior to joining Huawei in May 2014 Teng enjoyed an impressive career within China’s tech sector, including stints as Nokia’s general manger for western China and southern China, as well as general manger for Samsung in southern China.

Teng joins a long list of senior executives from China’s leading tech firms who have seen storied careers overturned by corruption allegations.

In early 2013 Yan Limin (阎利珉) former head of Alibaba Group’s retail site Juhuasuan, received a seven year prison sentence for corruption.

Yan was considered one of the luminaries of Chinese e-commerce at the time, with Juhuasuan’s transaction volume hitting 10.1 billion yuan in 2011, and accounting for 50% of China’s group buying market share.

In June 2015 Alibaba vice-president and head of digital entertainment Liu Chunning was detained by police for receiving commercial bribes during his near ten-year tenure as an executive with Tencent.

Tencent reportedly released compromising information on Liu after he jump switched ships to work with chief rival Alibaba, breaching a non-competition agreement with his erstwhile employer during the process.

Tencent subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against Liu, pursuing him for all the equity interests he obtained in the company during his ten year career with them, worth as much as several dozen million yuan.

In March this year search engine giant Baidu announced that the firing of Zeng Liangli, Baidu vice-president as well as head of Baidu Nuomi, for “seeking personal gain during the process of Baidu’s agency commercial financing, and breaching the professional ethical standards of the company.”

Problems with Baidu’s corporate culture prompted public statements on the issue from CEO Li Yanhong, who declared in August that “we can only have the ability to do battle with a clean and ethical culture.”