You may recall that back in March it emerged that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were looking into report of bribery for software contracts.
Authorities began probing Microsoft for securing these contracts estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars by bribing and persuading officials in countries like China, Italy and Romania.
The Wall Street Journal reported to news early in the year, and now the paper is reporting that the probe has been expanded to include similar claims in two more countries — Microsoft executives have reportedly bribed local government officials in Russia and Pakistan to win supplier contracts.
One tipster in Russia claimed that kickbacks were sent to an executive of an unnamed state-owner company in order to secure a contract from resellers of Microsoft software.
Another allegations claim that a Microsoft employee offered a five-day holiday in Egypt to a Pakistani government official and his wife to ensure that the technology titan won a software contract, said to be in the range of millions of dollars.
Microsoft has said in a statement that it is looking into these bribery claims. John Frank, vice president and deputy general counsel said:
“We take every allegation seriously, and we cooperate fully in any government inquiries. Like other large companies with operations around the world, we sometimes receive allegations about potential misconduct by employees or business partners, and we investigate them fully, regardless of the source.
We also invest heavily in proactive training, monitoring and audits to ensure our business operations around the world meet the highest legal and ethical standards.”
Frank explained that Microsoft has set up a team of 50 experts to look into any and all bribery claims around the world that are related to the software titan.
As far as this case is concerned, the company expects to reach a conclusion in the coming months.
