Sony probed India business for corruption, e-mails show

[Technoglitch]

Alleged kickbacks

In the probe into alleged kickbacks involving carriage fees, which are payments made by a broadcaster to a distributor, Ernst and Young said it received allegations that MSM and MSM Discovery were receiving kickbacks ranging from 10% to 15% of the fees, according to the memo. Additionally, some employees who were fired for carriage-fee kickbacks at another company were employed at MSM Discovery, according to the memo. A third investigation looked into potential gifts and entertainment of Indian government officials that exceeded MSM Discovery policy limits. The memo cited evidence of employees providing tickets to IPL cricket matches to public servants, as well as laptop bags that were requested as gifts for government officials during the Diwali festival. IPL tickets can cost as much as Rs.25,000 each, according to its website.


Alleged collusion

The 6 October letter alleged that the head of MSM’s motion-pictures unit was colluding with an agent to raise the cost of movies that Sony bought to air on TV by as much as 35% in return for kickbacks. According to the letter, Sneha Rajani, a deputy president at MSM, was routing the company’s movie purchases through Manish Shah of Goldmines Telefilms, raising prices of the films. According to the letter, Rajani also instructed producers, who offered to sell their films to MSM, to direct their proposals to Shah. A representative at Goldmines declined to make Shah available for comment. Attempts to reach Rajani, who still lists MSM as her employer based on her Twitter feed and LinkedIn page, failed.




http://www.livemint.com/Companies/ZJL0yVJxmAC1HMi343aE3O/Sony-probed-India-business-for-corruption-emails-show.html?utm_source=copy

 

[DashMajor]

Didn't understand most of the things but it is correct that Sony made a corruption on IPL rights with Lalit Kumar Modi.

 

[aumnamonarayan]

Nice to see Sony investigating the corruption into its Indian Business. Many big names have been exposed, right from distribution to motion pictures to the people working in their channels are involved in corruption. Good going Sony, a True Japanese brand which has let the truth be exposed. Indian companies would never do that

 

[NinadG]

Now I come to know why a brand like Sony is still lingering at position 6 since so long..........

 

[NinadG]

We must be grateful to North Korean hackers.....because of them now we come to know why Sony is suffering so much............

 

[DashMajor]

In the article its also questioning on MSM motion pictures and quoiting that how movies rights money increased despite of less and no competitors.

 

[Technoglitch]

MSM employees purchased the contents at higher price who had deal with providers and giving the percentage of amount back to them. This is done to show at higher inflated prices to the headquarters.

 

[NinadG]

Alleged collusion
"The 6 October letter alleged that the head of MSM’s motion-pictures unit was colluding with an agent to raise the cost of movies that Sony bought to air on TV by as much as 35% in return for kickbacks. According to the letter, Sneha Rajani, a deputy president at MSM, was routing the company’s movie purchases through Manish Shah of Goldmines Telefilms, raising prices of the films."

Alleged kickbacks
"In the probe into alleged kickbacks involving carriage fees, which are payments made by a broadcaster to a distributor, Ernst and Young said it received allegations that MSM and MSM Discovery were receiving kickbacks ranging from 10% to 15% of the fees, according to the memo. Additionally, some employees who were fired for carriage-fee kickbacks at another company were employed at MSM Discovery, according to the memo."

Kickbacks up to 35%................?
That means almost one third of the price........