Tencent, the Chinese tech behemoth, announced on Monday that it has fired over 100 employees for violating company standards, with some reported to the police and ultimately found guilty of bribery and embezzlement.
The company, which reported its second straight quarterly revenue drop in November, said in a statement that it had found more than 100 employees guilty of breaking its anti-fraud policy.
"In response to the problems of corruption and fraud within the company, Tencent's Anti-Fraud Investigation Department continued to strengthen its crackdown and investigated and dealt with a series of violations with common problems," the firm said.
"The number of cases and personnel investigated and dealt with throughout 2022 has increased compared with 2021," it added.
According to Tencent, more than 10 were sent to China's public security organization.
The Hong Kong-listed business, which is also the owner of the well-known super-app WeChat and the world's leading video game developer, has struggled as a result of a major governmental crackdown on China's digital industry that was started in late 2020.
It continued that those charged had been found guilty of accepting bribes, embezzling corporate funds, and a number had been reported to the police.
Many of those dismissed and charged with corruption worked for the business's PCG division, which is in charge of producing the vast majority of its news, sports, and entertainment content.
However, they also extend to Tencent's other industries, like cloud computing and finance.
One employee, in particular, was found guilty of "accepting bribes from non-state employees" and sentenced to three years in prison, according to the corporation.
Pony Ma, the company's CEO, told an internal staff meeting last month that the extent of corruption at the firm was "shocking" according to official media.
Tencent has been badly impacted by Beijing's regulatory attacks on video games, which has seen hundreds of companies swear to remove "politically harmful" content from their products and impose age restrictions on underage gamers in order to comply with official demands.
But since October 28, when it hit a low not seen since 2017, the company has begun to show signs of recovery, with its share price in Hong Kong almost doubling.
Additionally, the business received its first video game license in 18 months last month, ending a dry spell that has hurt the sales of the biggest game developer in the world.
