(Yicai Global) May 31 -- Bilibili has fired an awarded middle manager of the Chinese video-sharing platform's e-commerce department who is suspected of embezzling more than CNY1 million (USD140,000) of company funds.

Zhuang Yaqin, who was named the 2019 Bilibili Star, has been let go because she seized big sums of company assets, The Paper reported yesterday, citing an internal email of the Shanghai-based firm. An internal chat record of Bilibili shows that the sum exceeds CNY1 million (USD140,000) but an insider said to The Paper that actually it is much more. Bilibili has not confirmed the exact sum.

Bilibili has initiated the necessary procedure to recover the illegal gains and fully cooperates with public security authorities to follow up on the process, per the report.

Zhuang colluded with Juki Kamiyama, a former employee of Bilibili’s Japan branch, to steal a number of company assets by registering fake companies and adding transaction links on the platform, another insider at the firm said.

Another Bilibili insider explained that Zhuang used to work as a mid-manager in procurement so she could, for example, modify costs from CNY 100,000 to CNY300,000 (USD42,190) to bill the company extra.

The Netflix-like platform boosted its revenue by 13 percent to CNY21.9 billion (USD3 billion) in the fiscal year of 2022 from a year ago while its net loss widened by 10 percent to CNY7.5 billion (USD1 billion), according to its earnings report. However, net loss declined by 29 percent in the fourth quarter.

Chief Executive Chen Rui said that in 2023, the loss can be narrowed significantly, and the firm will break even in 2024.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi