In an unusual twist of events, a former high-ranking executive of video streaming giant Netflix has been convicted by the courts for accepting bribes and kickbacks from technology vendors in exchange for them providing their products and services to Netflix while he was at the company.

Details:

• Michael Kail was employed as Netflix’s Vice President in charge of IT Operations from 2011 until July 2014, a position in which he oversaw the company’s technology stack and operations. In that position, Kail was accused of approving contracts to purchase IT products and services from smaller outside vendor companies in exchange for kickbacks from them.

• According to his 2018 indictment, Kail allegedly received over $500,000 of cash along with valuable stock options as kickbacks from nine tech companies providing products or services to Netflix, and this was in exchange for approving millions of dollars in contracts for those companies.

• Kail was charged in federal court in San Jose and dragged his case for three years up until now. He was indicted on a collective 29 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering and was recently convicted of 28 out of those 29 counts after a trial lasting for two and a half weeks.

• Kail’s attorney during the trial vouched for his innocence in a statement to Bloomberg, accusing Netflix of using its influence as a powerful company to push for Kail’s prosecution. He said the conviction will be appealed.

• For his conviction by a San Jose federal jury, Kail faces a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison and a substantial monetary fine. 

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