Former Microsoft workers have accused the company of turning a blind eye to bribes by employees, subcontractors, and government operators.
The article was initially published in the Wall Street Journal.
Yasser Elabd accused Microsoft workers of exploiting local partner firms to help promote the company's wares to clients in an article published Friday on Lioness, a platform that archives tales from whistleblowers.
Microsoft informed The Wall Street Journal that it had already examined the accusations, which were "several years old," and that it has removed personnel and partnerships involved in the probes.
Elabd said in 2016 that he understood a $40,000 payment to an African customer wasn't acceptable. He discovered it was a former Microsoft employee who had been fired for bad performance after some investigation. "Corporate policy bans former workers from working as partners without specific consent for six months after their departure," he wrote.
He stated that when he asked for further information from management, he was met with resistance and concluded there was more to it than that, so he proceeded to dig into the Microsoft workers who were coordinating the bogus agreements.
Outside of normal business hours, Microsoft did not react to Insider's request for comment.
He said he tried everything he could to halt the bribery in the two years that followed, but he thought Microsoft was not interested in stopping the payments. In June of 2018, he was sacked, according to him.
According to records acquired by the WSJ, Elabd held a seven-hour discussion with SEC staffers at the agency's Washington DC offices, according to an interview. He presented further information after the meeting, but agency officials indicated the probe couldn't go any farther because to the epidemic.
According to Elabd, "a minimum of $200 million in bribes is paid to Microsoft workers, partners, and government personnel each year." "Government leaders in Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are among the consumers who I believe have received this money," he stated.
Microsoft agreed to pay $25.3 million, including a criminal penalties, to resolve US claims that it made unlawful payments to corrupt government officials in Hungary and other countries, according to Insider.