By Denny Jacob


Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. American depositary receipts declined 4.8% to $103.83 following a report by The Wall Street Journal that executives have been called in by Chinese authorities in connection with the theft of a vast police database.

Executives at the Chinese tech giant's cloud division were called in for talks by Shanghai authorities in response to one of the largest data heists, The Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Executives called in for meetings with the authorities include Alibaba Cloud Vice President Chen Xuesong, who was recently hired to lead the unit's digital public-security business, according to the report.

The investigation revolves around a cache of sensitive Shanghai police data on an estimated nearly one billion Chinese citizens, which was offered for sale online for the equivalent of roughly $200,000 in late June, the report said.


Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-14-22 1205ET