By Michael Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group’s Beijing office was raided by authorities and five Chinese staff were detained, a source with the company told Reuters on Thursday.
The source for the New York-headquartered firm told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the company’s local legal counsel said the raid occurred on the afternoon of March 20, and that the employees were being held incommunicado somewhere outside of Beijing.
Mintz could not be reached immediately for comment.
“Last Monday (March 20th) late in the day, the office was raided and all five of the staff members – they are all PRC (People’s Republic of China) citizens – were detained,” the person said.
The source said the company was not aware of the reasons for the raid and had not had contact with authorities, but was assessing the potential for data breaches and was alerting clients.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
