The Wall Street Journal reported that lawyers from the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission had been conducting a preliminary investigation into kickback allegations made by a former Microsoft representative in China, as well as the company’s relationships with certain resellers and consultants in Romania and Italy.
An anonymous tipster told Microsoft that resellers of its software in Russia had funnelled kickbacks to executives of a state-owned company to win a deal. Another whistleblower in Pakistan, claimed that Redmond had authorised a consulting firm to pay for a five-day trip to Egypt for a government official and his wife in order to win a tender.
The two contacted Microsoft directly in the last eight months, the people said.