A former senior executive of Chinese gaming company Yoozoo Games has been sentenced to death for poisoning billionaire businessman and company founder Lin Qi during a business dispute linked to a major Netflix project.
According to media reports Xu Yao poisoned Lin Qi’s food in December 2020 in Shanghai. Lin Qi later died on Christmas Day at the age of 39.
Police arrested Xu Yao shortly after the businessman’s death and in 2024 a Chinese court found him guilty of murder and handed down the death sentence.
Reports say tensions between the two men increased after Lin Qi removed Xu Yao from key business responsibilities and transferred authority to other executives. Xu Yao had reportedly played an important role in securing a major agreement between Yoozoo Games and Netflix.
Yoozoo Games owned the film and television rights to the famous Chinese science fiction novel The Three Body Problem. Xu Yao was leading the company’s subsidiary Three Body Universe which managed business operations related to the project.
In September 2020 Netflix officially acquired the rights to produce a series based on the novel. Lin Qi was appointed executive producer while Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss also joined the project.
Reports say Lin Qi had appointed Xu Yao as head of the Three Body Universe project in 2018 but relations between them deteriorated after changes in company authority two years later.
Yoozoo Games confirmed the death sentence on May 21 and said the company remains deeply saddened by Lin Qi’s death. The company also expressed sympathy for his family and stated that employees fully respect the fairness of the legal process.
Netflix released the science fiction series 3 Body Problem in 2024. The show follows a group of scientists investigating mysterious scientific failures and a possible threat to humanity from outer space.
