Amazon bribery case: Indian among 6 indicted in fraud

Six people including an Indian national and an IndianAmerican were indicted by a US grand jury on Friday with conspiring to pay over USD 100000 in commercial bribes to employees and contractors of Amazon for unfair competitive advantage on its merchant platformAccording to the indictment all the six accused used bribery and fraud since 2017 to benefit merchant accounts on Amazon Marketplace a platform where thirdparty merchants sell goods resulting in more than USD 100 million of competitive benefits to those accounts harm to competitors and harm to consumers the US Justice Department saidThe accused have been named as Nishad Kunju 31 from Hyderabad Rohit Kadimisetty 27 from California three from New York Ephraim Rosenburg 45 Joseph Nilsen 31 and Kristen Leccese and Hadis Nuhanoviv 30 from Georgia They have been charged with conspiracy to use a communication facility to commit commercial bribery conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorisation conspiracy to commit wire fraudThey will make their initial appearances in US District Court in Seattle on October 15 the Department of Justice said iquestAs the world moves increasingly to online commerce we must ensure that the marketplace is not corrupted with unfair advantages obtained by bribes and kickbacksiquest said US Attorney Brian MoranThe ultimate victim from this criminal conduct is the buying public who get inferior or even dangerous goods that should have been removed from the marketplace he saidRealising they could not compete on a level playing field the subjects turned to bribery and fraud in order to gain the upper hand said Raymond Duda Special Agent in Charge FBI SeattleWhats equally concerning not only did they attempt to increase sales of their own products but sought to damage and discredit their competitors he said adding that this indictment should send a message that the FBI will not sit on the sidelines while criminals try to cheat their way to the topThe indictment alleges that they served as consultants to socalled thirdparty 3P sellers on the Amazon MarketplaceThose 3P sellers consisted of individuals and entities who sold a wide range of goods including household goods consumer electronics and dietary supplements on Amazons multibilliondollar electronic commerce platform In addition to providing consulting services to these 3P sellers some of the defendants including Nilsen Leccese and Nuhanovic made their own sales on the Amazon Marketplace through 3P accounts they operatedIn the course of the conspiracy described in the indictment they paid bribes to at least 10 different Amazon employees and contractors including Kunju who accepted bribes as a sellersupport associate in Hyderabad India before becoming an outside consultant who recruited and paid bribes to his former colleaguesIn exchange for those bribes the corrupted employees and contractors reinstated suspended merchant accounts and product listings on the Amazon Marketplace facilitated attacks against competitors misappropriated Amazons highly confidential business information and circumvented Amazons internal limits on 3P accountsIn a statement Amazon said that the company work hard to build a great experience for customers and sellers and bad actors like those in this case detract from the flourishing community of honest entrepreneurs that make up the vast majority of its sellersAmazon has systems in place to detect suspicious behaviour by sellers or employees and teams in place to investigate and stop prohibited activity it saidWe are especially disappointed by the actions of this limited group of now former employees and appreciate the collaboration and support from law enforcement to bring them and the bad actors they were entwined with to justice the company saidKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever