Beam co-founder at Uber when US probed bribery controversy

Beam co-founder Alan Jiang was Uber’s Indonesia boss just before it faced US bribery probe.

Beam Mobility’s co-founders, Alan Jiang and Deb Gangopadhyay.

One of the co-founders of Beam Mobility was the Indonesian head of ride-sharing company Uber just before it became the target of a US bribery probe.

Beam chief executive Alan Jiang had senior roles in Uber as it pushed into the Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Indonesian markets before leaving in 2017.

Just over a year later, he co-founded the Singapore-based e-vehicle company with Yale University classmate Deb Gangopadhyay.

Until the scandal erupted over its operations in Australia, Beam had become one of Asia’s hot tech firms, raising more than $US125m from big-name investors as it spread into nine countries and this year posted a 36 per cent jump in profit to $US53m.

It is not the first time Mr Jiang has faced controversy over a tech company at which he has worked. In 2017, it was revealed the US Department of Justice had launched an investigation into whether Uber had broken laws prohibiting American companies from bribing foreign officials.

The Australian is not suggesting Mr Jiang was involved in any wrong-doing.

In 2017, it was revealed the US Department of Justice had launched an investigation into whether Uber had broken laws prohibiting American companies from bribing foreign officials. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

At the time, Uber had also announced it had engaged a law firm to investigate “suspicious activity” in several Asian markets and would hand its findings to the US investigators.

“We received requests from the DOJ in May 2017 and August 2017 with respect to an investigation into allegations of small payments to police in Indonesia and other potential improper payments in other countries in which we operate or have operated, including Malaysia, China, and India,” Uber later declared in a 2019 prospectus.

When the probe was announced in late 2017, it was widely reported that Uber’s own investigations had found the alleged bribery payments.

The transactions showed up on an employee’s expense reports, described as payments to local authorities. The reports said the Uber employee who made the payments was fired.

It was also reported that Mr Jiang, who was Uber’s “country manager” between October 2014 and February 2017, had approved the expense report of the employee and was placed on a leave of absence and then left the company.

The US investigation was discontinued in 2020, with Uber saying in a statement that the Department of Justice would be taking no action.

A spokesman for Beam Mobility told The Australian Mr Jiang was unable to answer questions because of confidentiality issues.

Instead, the company provided a 2018 letter from Mr Jiang’s then lawyers, who were engaged by him in the face of the US probe. The letter from lawyers Cohen & Gresser purports that Mr Jiang was never a subject of the investigation.

“We understand that you are not personally under investigation, nor are you a target or subject of the DOJ inquiry,’’ the letter said.