One of the former Microsoft employees slapped his ex-employer without further ado. A manager accused a huge IT company of giving away bribes outside the United States. According to the man, there are amounts of up to $ 200 million a year at stake.
Microsoft involved in a bribe scandal
The whole story should begin with the fact that it was started by Yasser Elabd . The man was a manager at Microsoft in 1998-2018 . For most of his work for the American company Elabd, he supervised a business investment fund. This means that he mainly dealt with negotiating long-term cooperation, mostly in Africa and the Middle East .
However, everything seems to indicate that Elabd does not mention work at Microsoft too positively. The man, via the Lioness website, published a very extensive report in which he attacked the company . Among other things, Elabd stated there that he was fired after informing his superiors about the repetitive dealings of bribes . Local Microsoft employees, as well as subcontractors and officials were to be involved in such offenses.
Elabd explored the subject of his company’s bribery on his own, which was to result in his parting with his employer. The former manager of Microsoft noted that the scams most often consisted of issuing special “discounts” to purchased products, which were ultimately paid one hundred percent anyway.
The excess money was then distributed among the interested parties. Probably the above words would be quickly smashed by the company from Redmond, but Elabd gave specific examples of illegal transactions between Microsoft and contractors.
The Saudi Ministry of the Interior was thrown first . The amount Elabd talks about in this case is as much as $ 13.6 million . Sometime later – in 2015, a Nigerian politician allegedly complained that his government had paid $ 5.5 million for licensed computer hardware that ultimately never made it to official buyers.
In total, various types of bribes and scams were to make up a total of $ 200 million annually , which goes to employees, partners and other interested parties.
Microsoft rollers continued …
We can be pretty sure that Elabd is very committed to exposing his former employer’s misconduct, as he continues to “shoot” at Microsoft. One of the more interesting examples of “creative accounting” of the Redmond company is to be the case of the Ministry of Education in Qatar .
The government body was to pay a total of $ 9.5 million over the seven-year period for licenses for the Office and Windows software. However, as it turned out, the office in Qatar that allegedly used software ... did not even have computers.
Of course, as you can easily guess, Elabd tried to inform the relevant institutions about the whole procedure. Initially, this even had tangible effects as other managers backed out of the shameful trades. However, as you can imagine, closing the matter was short-term . Ultimately, the man’s contract with Microsoft was terminated.
The next step Elabda took was going to the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission . Effect? Dismissal of the application by the first institution and then discontinuation of the investigation by the number two instance.
Microsoft itself also referred to the whole matter . A special statement was issued by Becky Lenaburg , who is also the company’s vice president and deputy general counsel for ethics. The woman announced in the announcement that Microsoft is aware of various types of crimes that have occurred in Africa and the Middle East, but in their opinion this is a thing of the past. The company was supposed to cooperate with government bodies and bring the whole situation to its starting point.
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There are indications that Yasser Elabd’s accusations will eventually go to the bone . At the end of his report, the man stated that institutions such as the US Department of Justice and the US Securities Commission, by their passive approach to the case, give Microsoft the green light to illegal activities in Africa and the Middle East.
Source: Engadget
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