The China flagship firm of French telecom equipment group Alcatel-Lucent confirmed Monday a human resources manager is missing, after media reports said he had accused some of the joint venture's top executives of corruption.
Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell said it had "lost contact" with Jia Lining and was helping police and his family to locate him, according to a statement on its official microblog.
The statement described Jia as a mid-level manager in the human resources department.
The influential magazine Caixin last week reported that Jia was head of HR and had in a social media posting accused "many" high-level executives at the company and its subsidiaries of corruption and abuse of power.
The company said Monday that the posting on messaging app WeChat was inaccurate.
"The content of the Jia Lining WeChat has clear discrepancies with the facts," it said, adding the posting contained "several" fabrications and distortions.
The original entry could not be found. A 3,500-word version circulating online, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, listed nine names -- all Chinese -- of former and current company officials.
Relatives and friends said they lost contact with Jia on Wednesday and his car was found parked on Shanghai's Yangpu bridge, Caixin reported.
A police statement confirmed a car had been found, giving the owner's surname as Jia, and said it received a report of a possible suicide attempt.
Shanghai Bell, set up in 1984, was a pioneering venture, said to be the first foreign-invested stock company in China. Despite its partly foreign ownership it reports directly to the central government's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees major state firms.
The Chinese partner is China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Center, reports said.
Alcatel-Lucent said earlier this month that it had appointed a 26-year veteran of the group, Luis Martinez-Amago, as Shanghai Bell's chief executive officer.