(Yicai) Nov. 6 -- ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, has sacked 103 employees for misconduct this year, with 11 cases reported to law enforcement for suspected criminal offenses .

Of those 11 cases, one involves alleged embezzlement, five are linked to non-state employee bribery, while the nature of the rest was not specified, according to the fourth and latest discipline report the Beijing-based company released yesterday.

The cases span different business units, with three each from e-commerce and lifestyle services, two from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and one each from enterprise services, human resources, and financial operations.

Procurement and bidding processes were major areas of corruption, according to the report. Former employees in the e-commerce, Douyin, and enterprise services divisions were allegedly found to have accepted kickbacks to favor certain suppliers.

The report also addressed a high-profile incident involving an intern accused of sabotaging an artificial intelligence model training system. Between June and July, the former intern in the commercial products and technology department allegedly tampered with code to disrupt model training tasks, reportedly due to frustration over resource allocation.

The company terminated the intern’s contract and reported the case to the Sunshine Integrity Alliance and Enterprise Anti-Fraud Alliance, as well as to the intern’s university. The alliance, whose members include Alibaba Group Holding and Midea Group, is a platform aimed at combating corporate fraud and enhancing compliance. 

The report also detailed a breach in information security, with a former employee under investigation for allegedly selling confidential company data to external parties. Aside from the intern incident, the report did not specify the timeframe for these cases.

Editor: Emmi Laine