Summary: Yahoo CIO Michael Kail has been sued by Netflix, his former employer, for alleged kickbacks.
Yahoo Inc. CIO Michael Kail is being sued by Netflix Inc. for alleged kickbacks he received from IT vendors while employed by the video company, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
While at Netflix, Kail worked as the vice president of IT operations. He left the company in August of 2014 to join Yahoo. When he joined Yahoo he became the CIO as a member of the data and infrastructure team. He also holds the title of senior VP of infrastructure at Yahoo.
Yahoo has not commented on the lawsuit. Kail also declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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The lawsuit was filed Monday in Santa Clara Superior Court. Netflix claims that Kail helped the company sign its contracts with IT companies NetEnrich and Vistara IT. Netflix alleges that the companies paid commissions up to 15 percent of the amount invoiced to Netflix to a consulting company run by Kail. The consulting company is Unix Mercenary LLC, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Netflix reported that it paid the two companies $3.7 million, which equates to $500,000 being diverted by Kail. Neither company commented on the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Netflix reportedly found emails that indicate that “on information and belief, after Kail approved invoice payments by Netflix to NetEnrich and Vistara for various contracted products and/or services, [the companies]” paid the false “agent” company directly.
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Another email was discovered that was sent to NetEnrich by Kail in which he referenced a payment to Unix Mercenary. The email said, “Received, but it was sent to Netflix, not my home address. Please always use the latter.”
Netflix also claims that Kail asked an employee from DocuSign to switch his account with Netflix to a personal account so he can process contract signatures.
The lawsuit has alleged conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, duty of loyalty, unjust enrichment, fraudulent concealment, constructive fraud and violation of the California business code.
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