The Wall Street Journal reports that the US government is investigating Microsoft for bribery. According to unnamed sources, Microsoft paid-off foreign government officials to get software contracts.
According to the report, the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into anonymous accusations that Microsoft paid off officials in China, Romania and Italy. Regulators believe that the company may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which says that publicly traded companies cannot bribe foreign governments.
In the case of the China allegation, Microsoft hired an outside firm to conduct a 10-month investigation, which found no there was no wrongdoing. In a blog post, Microsoft downplayed the report saying that it’s important the government look into all allegations like these, and that its fairly standard that the government do so. Still, Microsoft did not confirm or deny the investigation, but it did say if there was an investigation, it wouldn’t comment anyway. [WSJ]