A former gaming executive has been sentenced to death for poisoning a billionaire Netflix producer in China

A former Yoozoo Games executive was sentenced to death on Friday for the 2020 poisoning of the founder of the high-profile Chinese gaming company, which has ties to Game of Thrones and a new Netflix series. “The Three-Body Problem.”

The Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court said that Xu Yao poisoned the food of company founder Lin Qi in December 2020 over a dispute over business management. The Hollywood Reporter reported, citing local media mentioned At that time, Lin was allegedly made nauseous by a cup of poisoned puerh tea.

Lin, who was 39, died about 10 days later. Police arrested Xu a few days after Lin's death.

The court said in a statement that four other people became ill but did not die after Shaw poisoned drinks in the office between September and December 2020 due to disagreements with two of them.

Yuzu owns the rights to “The Three-Body Problem,” China's best-selling science fiction trilogy, and Xu heads a subsidiary responsible for related works, according to Chinese media reports.

In September 2020, the company granted Netflix the right to produce an adaptation of the trilogy, Chinese state media reported at the time. It is produced by “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, and Lin is listed as an executive producer on the series.

Yoozoo, also known as Youzu Interactive, developed the game “Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming” inspired by the TV series.

In 2000, Lin ranked No. 870 among China's richest businessmen with a net worth of 6.8 billion yuan ($1 billion), according to the Hurun Report, which tracks China's wealthy people.

After Lin's death BBC reported That his company issued an emotional statement on its official microblog Weibo.

“Goodbye, young people,” the message read, adding, “We will be together, continue to be kind, continue to believe in goodness, and continue to fight against all that is bad.”