Baidu document acknowledges graft

Chinese search-engine giant Baidu said in an internal document that it has uncovered more than a dozen cases of “serious discipline violations,” including embezzlement and fraud, sources at Baidu told Caixin. The company has dismissed 30 employees involved in the illegal activities, and some cases have been referred to police. In other cases, individuals had already been sentenced to prison. In Baidu’s latest internal anti-corruption investigation, 17 violations were found in different areas of the company, including the search engine, gaming and group-buying units. Ten cases involved Baidu Nuomi, a group-buying service. An undisclosed number of employees there have been sentenced to prison for embezzling thousands of yuan in merchant subsidies. Since 2012, Baidu has carried out at least four anti-corruption investigations by its own “ethics and morality” department.