Former Amazon employee sentenced to 10 months in prison for involvement in bribery scheme
A former Amazon employee was sentenced Friday to federal prison for his involvement in an international bribery scheme.
Rohit Kadimisetty, who worked as a seller support employee out of Amazon's Hyderabad, India, office until 2015, was ordered to spend 10 months in prison after he admitted he conspired to commit bribery across state and national borders. Kadimisetty was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and undertake three years of supervised release.
Kadimisetty is one of six individuals who the U.S. Department of Justice charged with conspiracy for allegedly bribing Amazon employees to gain an “upper hand” over other sellers on Amazon's online marketplace. In addition to Kadimisetty, the group of individuals included seller consultant Ed Rosenberg, Joseph Nilsen, Kristen Leccese, Hadis Nuhanovic and Nishad Kunju, who was employed by Amazon in India until 2018.
Between late 2017 and 2020, these people allegedly bribed Amazon employees to leak information about the company's search and ranking algorithms, as well as share confidential data on third-party sellers they competed with on the marketplace. The scheme also involved bribing employees to reinstate suspended accounts and defacing competitors' product listings, the DOJ alleged in its indictment.
In all, the individuals allegedly paid $100,000 worth of bribes to employees and reaped more than $100 million in competitive benefits, the DOJ said.
In 2018, Amazon fired four employees in India who were allegedly connected to the bribery scheme, including Kunju and three people not identified in court filings.
Amazon launched the online marketplace in 2000, allowing a wide variety of third-party businesses, from small to global, to sell on its site. It has since grown to encompass millions of sellers and now accounts for roughly 60% of Amazon's overall retail sales.
While the marketplace has helped Amazon haul in record revenue, it has also been found to host counterfeit, unsafe and expired goods. Behind the scenes, scammers have for years resorted to black hat tactics to squash competitors, artificially boost their listings or bypass Amazon's marketplace rules.
Amazon has said it invests hundreds of millions of dollars per year to ensure products are safe and compliant.
Judge Richard Jones said in Friday's sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Seattle that the activities were akin to “modern day organized crime.”
“Mr. Kadimisetty used his knowledge and contacts from prior employment at Amazon, to enrich himself by manipulating listings on Amazon Marketplace,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a statement. “He was a critical cog in the bribery wheel: paying contacts in India to reinstate suspended accounts, steal confidential information and attack competitors who got in the way of those funding the bribery scheme.”
An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that “there is no place for fraud at Amazon.”
“We work hard to create a trustworthy shopping experience by protecting customers, selling partners, and Amazon from fraud and abuse, and we have systems in place to detect suspicious behavior,” the spokesperson added.
Attorneys for Kadimisetty didn't respond to requests for comment.
Four of the other defendants, Rosenberg, Nilsen, Leccese and Nuhanovic are scheduled for trial in October. Kunju has yet to be arraigned on the indictment, the DOJ said.
一名前亚马逊员工周五因参与一项国际贿赂计划而被判入狱。 Rohit Kadimisetty 在亚马逊印度海得拉巴办事处担任卖家支持员工，直到 2015 年，在承认他在州和国界之间合谋行贿后，被判处 10 个月监禁。 Kadimisetty 还被勒令支付 50,000 美元的罚款并接受三年的监督释放。
Kadimisetty 是美国司法部指控涉嫌贿赂亚马逊员工以在亚马逊在线市场上获得“优势”的六名个人之一。除了 Kadimisetty，这群人还包括卖家顾问 Ed Rosenberg、Joseph Nilsen、Kristen Leccese、Hadis Nuhanovic 和 Nishad Kunju，他们在印度受雇于亚马逊直到 2018 年。
据称，在 2017 年末至 2020 年期间，这些人贿赂亚马逊员工以泄露有关该公司搜索和排名算法的信息，并分享他们在市场上与之竞争的第三方卖家的机密数据。美国司法部在其起诉书中称，该计划还涉及贿赂员工以恢复被暂停的账户和破坏竞争对手的产品列表。
美国司法部表示，这些人总共向员工支付了价值 10 万美元的贿赂，并获得了超过 1 亿美元的竞争性福利。
2018 年，亚马逊在印度解雇了 4 名据称与贿赂计划有关的员工，其中包括 Kunju 和法庭文件中未指明的三人。
亚马逊于 2000 年推出在线市场，允许从小型到全球的各种第三方企业在其网站上销售。此后，它已经发展到包括数百万卖家，现在约占亚马逊整体零售额的 60%。
虽然该市场帮助亚马逊获得了创纪录的收入，但它也被发现存放假冒、不安全和过期的商品。在幕后，诈骗者多年来一直采用黑帽策略来压制竞争对手，人为地增加他们的列表或绕过亚马逊的市场规则。
亚马逊表示，它每年投资数亿美元，以确保产品安全合规。
理查德琼斯法官周五在西雅图美国地方法院举行的量刑听证会上表示，这些活动类似于“现代有组织犯罪”。
“先生。 Kadimisetty 利用他之前在亚马逊工作的知识和联系，通过操纵亚马逊市场上的列表来丰富自己，”美国检察官尼克布朗在一份声明中说。 “他是贿赂过程中的关键齿轮：向印度的联系人付款以恢复被暂停的帐户，窃取机密信息并攻击阻碍为贿赂计划提供资金的竞争对手。”
亚马逊发言人在一份声明中告诉 CNBC，“亚马逊不允许欺诈。”
发言人补充说：“我们努力通过保护客户、销售合作伙伴和亚马逊免受欺诈和滥用来创造值得信赖的购物体验，并且我们拥有检测可疑行为的系统。”
Kadimisetty 的律师没有回应置评请求。
其他四名被告罗森伯格、尼尔森、莱切斯和努哈诺维奇定于 10 月受审。美国司法部表示，昆菊尚未就起诉书被传讯。
