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Microsoft pays $25 million to settle corruption charges

Security

CIO Bulletin
2019-07-23

According to reports, Microsoft agreed to pay $25 million to settle the federal corruption charges involving a bribery scheme in its Hungary office and three other foreign subsidiaries.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission said that Microsoft will pay about $16.6 million to settle charges for the violation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act involving its operations in Arabia, Thailand and Turkey, Hungary, Saudi.

Some reports said that from 2013 to 2015, a senior executive and other employees at the Hungary office took part in a bribery scheme to inflate margins in the Microsoft sales channel in connection with Microsoft software licenses sold to Hungarian government agencies.

According to Justice Department, Microsoft will also pay $8.75 million criminal fine in the Hungarian bribery and bid-rigging scheme. Justice Department says that this bribery involved Microsoft licenses which sold to government agencies and falsely recorded as discounts and used for corrupt practices.

In response, Microsoft President Brad Smith said to employees that the conduct was completely unacceptable and involved a small number of employees.

Brad Smith also promised to make certain to company plans in order to prevent discounts being used for improper purposes.