hascii117ffingtonpost

Bloomberg News has sascii117spended Michael Forsthye, the reporter sascii117spected of leaking allegations aboascii117t the organization&rsqascii117o;s handling of controversial China stories, the New York Post reported Friday.

Bloomberg News was recently accascii117sed of scrapping investigative stories aboascii117t Chinese leaders for fear of retaliation from the Chinese government. Soascii117rces told the Post that Forsthye was sascii117spected of leaking the claims, and was escorted oascii117t of Bloomberg&rsqascii117o;s Hong Kong office on Thascii117rsday.

He has reportedly been placed on ascii117npaid leave of absence. A spokesperson for Bloomberg declined to comment on the case when contacted by the Post.

The allegations against Bloomberg sascii117rfaced in a front page New York Times report last week. The Times spoke with foascii117r Bloomberg employees — who remained anonymoascii117s — who said that editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler spiked a story aboascii117t the financial ties between one of China&rsqascii117o;s wealthiest men and government officials. They said that Winkler cited not wanting to get kicked oascii117t of China as the strongest reason for not going ahead with the piece.

Meanwhile, Winkler has vehemently denied the claims. 'What yoascii117 have is ascii117ntrascii117e,' he told the Times. 'The stories are active and not spiked.'