Indian among six indicted in Amazon bribery case in US
They have been charged with conspiracy to use a communication facility to commit bribery , conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorisation, conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
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Amazon said “bad actors like those during this case detract from the flourishing community of honest entrepreneurs that structure the overwhelming majority of its sellers.”
Six people, including an Indian national and an Indian-American, were indicted by a US jury on Friday with conspiring to pay over $100,000 in commercial bribes to employees and contractors of Amazon for unfair competitive advantage on its merchant platform.
According to the indictment, all the six accused used bribery and fraud since 2017 to profit merchant accounts on Amazon Marketplace, a platform where third-party merchants sell goods, leading to quite $100 million of competitive benefits to those accounts, harm to competitors and harm to consumers, the US Department of Justice said.
The accused are named as Nishad Kunju, 31, from Hyderabad, Rohit Kadimisetty, 27, from California, three from ny — 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 bribery , conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorisation, conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
They will make their initial appearances in US District Court in Seattle on October 15, the Department of Justice said.
“As the planet moves increasingly to online commerce, we must make sure that the marketplace isn’t corrupted with unfair advantages obtained by bribes and kick-backs,” said US Attorney Brian Moran.
“The ultimate victim from this criminal conduct is that the buying public who get inferior or maybe dangerous goods that ought to are faraway from the marketplace,” he said.
“Realising they might not compete on A level playing field, the themes turned to bribery and fraud so as to realize the whip hand ,” said Raymond Duda, agent responsible , FBI Seattle.
“What’s equally concerning, not only did they plan to increase sales of their own products, but sought to wreck and discredit their competitors,” he said, adding that this indictment should send a message that the FBI won’t sit on the sidelines while criminals attempt to cheat their thanks to the highest .
The indictment alleges that they served as consultants to so-called third-party sellers on the Amazon Marketplace. Those 3P sellers consisted of people and entities who sold a good range of products , including household goods, consumer electronics, and dietary supplements on Amazon’s multi-billion-dollar electronic commerce platform.
In addition to providing consulting services to those 3P sellers, a number of the defendants, including Nilsen, Leccese, and Nuhanovic, made their own sales on the Amazon Marketplace through 3P accounts they operated.
In the course of the conspiracy described within the indictment, they paid bribes to a minimum of 10 different Amazon employees and contractors, including Kunju, who accepted bribes as a seller-support associate in Hyderabad, India, before becoming an outdoor consultant who recruited and paid bribes to his former colleagues.
In exchange for those bribes, the corrupted employees and contractors reinstated suspended merchant accounts and merchandise listings on the Amazon Marketplace; facilitated attacks against competitors; misappropriated Amazon’s highly confidential business information and circumvented Amazon’s internal limits on 3P accounts.
In a statement, Amazon said that “the company exerting to create an excellent experience for patrons and sellers, and bad actors like those during this case detract from the flourishing community of honest entrepreneurs that structure the overwhelming majority of its sellers.”
Amazon has systems in situ to detect suspicious behaviour by sellers or employees, and teams in situ to research and stop prohibited activity, it said.
“We are especially disappointed by the actions of this limited group of now former employees, and appreciate the collaboration and support from enforcement to bring them and therefore the bad actors they were entwined with to justice,” the corporate said.
