Bonum Certa Men Certa

Did Microsoft Pay Millions of Dollars to Hide Information About Financial Malpractice?

Money on a dark desk



Summary: On the face of it, Microsoft essentially bribes its former CFO to keep quiet about what he knows; the mainstream press reveals some very damning information

THIS morning we wrote about Microsoft tax dodge/evasion which was facilitated by a former Microsoft general manager who is now working for the government. A couple of years ago we also wrote about Microsoft paying millions of dollars for a former employee to keep quiet about financial fraud that he exposed. Charles Pancerzewski was paid $4 million to keep quiet [1, 2]. If his allegations were flawed (which they were not, as there was concrete evidence that the judge accepted and the SEC then stepped in), why would Microsoft shell out so much money for his silence?



According to this new article from CFO.com, Microsoft's previous CFO, who abruptly quit the company a few months ago, mirrors some of the above. Microsoft gave him a gift of $1.9 million. [via Joseph Tartakoff]

The sum, to be paid in two equal installments on December 31, 2009, and March 31, 2010, comes in exchange for promising not to sue or otherwise disparage Microsoft after his departure, the tech giant recently disclosed in its most recent quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Such payouts are often written into employment contracts at the outset of a CFO's tenure as protection from the career risks of making big gambles on corporate strategy. But some experts say Liddell's was out of the ordinary since he did not have an employment contract or other explicit promise of such a sum. In fact, Microsoft's most recent proxy, filed at the end of September, claims its top executives "are not entitled to any payments upon termination of their employment or following a change of control of Microsoft" except under certain conditions that did not apply to Liddell. (Speaking through a GM spokesperson, Liddell said he would have no comment.)

[...]

While that raises questions about why Liddell might have left Microsoft after four and a half years there, at least part of the "quo" is spelled out in the extremely detailed resignation letter Liddell signed, also filed with the SEC.

The letter contained all the standard promises, such as that Liddell would not sue or disparage the company or disclose any of its secrets, but with some language that is highly specific for such contracts.


Wow.

“No reporter worth there salt should have been reporting unaudited numbers. They should have learnt their lesson from Enron.”
      --Oiaohm
Microsoft essentially faked its financial results at the end of last month [1, 2, 3, 4]. This is something that we showed.

As our reader Oiaohm pointed out two weeks ago (in IRC), "Now I know what the problem is. (Unaudited) cannot be entered into sharemarket trackers... Now big question why in 31 days they could not got their reports Audited that is a big thing. I don't know the USA sharemarket audit requirements... Here its use a government and asx approved firm for auditing. Does not cost much as long as you have all you paperwork in order... Problem I have with those MS numbers since they are not audited they can be doing a big E... No reporter worth there salt should have been reporting unaudited numbers. They should have learnt their lesson from Enron."

It looks rather possible that Microsoft is still committing financial fraud. The article above confirmed a long-held suspicion backed by a lot of evidence. It's not far fetched at all for a company that allegedly has orgies and drug parties these days [1, 2]. Perhaps it's time for the SEC to pay Microsoft another visit (as it did some years ago after another case of financial fraud that Microsoft had paid to suppress).

A lot of people blew the whistle on Bernard Madoff but their complaints were repeatedly ignored for Madoff had the reputation of a rich man. Only when he turned himself in did regulators take this seriously. Given that a Microsoft shareholder compared Ballmer and Bill Gates to Bernard Madoff just a year ago, it's probably time to investigate. The "shut up" money that Microsoft paid Chris Liddell ought to be overridden by the law's needs.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Why Techrights Cannot be Vilified (and Instead It Gets SLAPPed Repeatedly by Microsoft People)
Attack dogs are all "bark"; because they have no actual "bite"
Links 25/06/2025: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Caught Lying, WhatsApp Faces More Bans
Links for the day
Wayland Pushers Lose the Argument, Use LLM Slop and Chatbots to Make Up Arguments for IBM
Another new low and low blow
What is "MATA"?
Think of it as GAFAM or "Meta"
WebProNews is a Slopfarm
Please avoid linking to WebProNews
 
Canonical Seems to Have Culled Some Sources of LLM Slop From Planet Ubuntu
It's like "junk food", it's not information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 25, 2025
On "Weak Claims"
For the record, they sent me unjustified threats, repeatedly tried injunctions (censorship)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part I - Burnout and Family Health
more exceptional circumstances
This Month's Mail (MX) Server Survey Shows Microsoft at 0.20% "Market Share"
We need to remind people that desktops and laptops decline (in proportion to other client devices) and at the "back end" GNU/Linux is already dominant and has long been dominant
Links 26/06/2025: Filespooler Guide and Learning to Code
Links for the day
The 'Case' of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft is a Lot of Copypasta (Maybe Also LLM Slop) From the Matthew Garrett 'Case'
5RB deserves to know and the matter shall be properly reported in due course (when the time is right)
Austrian GNU/Linux Usage Up to About 5% as More of Europe Abandons Microsoft
Since inauguration day the Austrian people have adopted more and more of GNU/Linux
Why the "Wayland People" and "Rust People" Will Lose Hearts and Minds (Same Reasons)
Wayland pushers are fast becoming like "Rust People"
5,600 Pages/Articles Per Year
So far this year we've kept all the promises
BetaNews Beginning to Show What Its True Goals Are
The 'new' BetaNews won't be about journalism. It's trying to sell things.
Microsoft Has Lost "The War"
We'll soon see the 9th or 10th wave of Microsoft layoffs in 2025 alone
Slopwatch: A Wreck and a Dreck, "Flooding the Zone With Dreck" or Flooding the Web With Junk
"Slopwatch" continues today because we have many new examples
Links 25/06/2025: Thwarting More Software Patents, Overlap Grows Between EPO Corruption and Illegal Kangaroo Patent Courts in EU
Links for the day
Brian Fagioli Created Another Slopfarm Targeting "Linux" After BetaNews Became a Slopfarm of Phantom Accounts and Pseudonyms
Mr. Fagioli even had slop about a dead Torvalds (hypothetical) as clickbait
Wayland is Perfect, Nobody Can Escape Its Perfection! (Or Not)
Do not form on opinion on Wayland based on politics
Moral Duty for "Linux Sites" to Speak Out Against LLM Slop
My wife has long complained about "Linux bloggers" keeping quiet and thus passive about a growing problem: slop
In Recent Hours Google News Promoted at Least 3 Slopfarms That Relayed Linux Foundation Propaganda Made by Bots or LLM "Bullshit Generators" (as Dr. Stallman Dubbed Them)
Google is circling down the drain and Google News too is hopeless
Linux Journal is a Slopfarm, It's Experimenting With LLM 'Authors'
Is Slashdot next?
Microsoft LinkedIn is Dying and Many More Layoffs Are on the Way
LinkedIn is just a failed acquisition of Microsoft. It causes losses and debt.
Gemini Links 25/06/2025: Combinatorial Music and Self Hosting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Coming Back to Europe This Autumn to Give More Talks
His last talk in Europe attracted about 400-450 people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Social Control Media, Technology & Catholicism: Synod on Synodality review and feedback
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Many More Women Will Managers at Microsoft Strangle and Tell to Kill Themselves (or Try to Kill)?
The world needs to know what happened
The New BetaNews: 7 New 'Articles', All of Them LLM Slop
BetaNews is basically defunct. Nobody writes there anymore.
Another "Told You So!": XBox Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Many Recent Reports Were Chaff and Spin), Many Other Divisions Affected
With mass layoffs at Microsoft the world would be much better
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day