Microsoft Corp, accused by a former employee of paying bribes in Africa and the Middle East, said on Saturday that it had probed the allegations and fired several employees as a result.
A former Microsoft employee accused the tech giant of corruption in the Wall Street Journal and in an essay posted on Friday on the Web site Lioness, which publishes whistleblower accounts.
The employee said he was fired after working for Microsoft from 1998 to 2018 in Africa, where he said he saw company employees involved in corrupt practices in several countries in the region.
Photo: Reuters
The Microsoft employee said the practices included using local partner companies to help sell Microsoft products.
Asked about the allegations, a Microsoft executive said on Saturday: “We believe we’ve previously investigated these allegations, which are many years old, and addressed them.”
“We cooperated with government agencies to resolve any concerns,” Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel for compliance and ethics Becky Lenaburg said.
Employees were fired and partnerships were ended as part of the response to the original allegations, the company said.
“We are committed to doing business in a responsible way,” Lenaburg said.
Microsoft “always encourages anyone to report anything they see that may violate the law, our policies or our ethical standards,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal said the whistleblower also warned the US Securities and Exchange Commission of his concerns in 2019.
In deposition documents, the employee claimed Microsoft had “engaged for many years in rampant bribery practices,” the Wall Street Journal said.
The employee estimated that Microsoft spent more than US$200 million per year on bribes and kickbacks in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, news Web site The Verge said.
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