In 2020, Lin Qi—the 39-year-old billionaire behind gaming company Yoozoo who’d optioned the film rights to Liu Cixin’s acclaimed The Three-Body Problem—was murdered by a former executive at his company, Xu Yao. Xu was recently sentenced to death by a court in Shanghai for the crime.

The Times cites China’s Caixin as reporting “between September and December 2020, Mr. Xu began spiking beverages such as coffee, whiskey, and drinking water with methylmercury chloride and bringing them into the office.” After he was arrested, “Mr. Xu reportedly declined to confess to the crime and did not disclose what poison he had used, complicating doctors’ efforts to save Mr. Lin’s life.” Four other co-workers were allegedly also on his list; the Times notes “he not only killed Mr. Lin, but also poisoned his own replacement.”