Netflix has initiated legal action against former vice-president of information technology operations Mike Kail, alleging he accepted kickbacks from vendors.
As reported by Re/Code, the on-demand video-streaming provider claims Kail arranged contracts with IT service companies Vistara and NetEnrich (both run by Raju Chekuri) and then accepted commissions of 12pc to 15pc of the monthly fees paid to the firms, funnelling the money to his own consulting company Unix Mercenary.
“Netflix’s investigation also revealed that, on information and belief, Kail may have received other benefits from companies that contracted with Netflix, including but not limited to, stock, gift certificates, and cash,” Netflix said in the complaint obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Kail is accused of fraud, breach of fiduciary duties and other improper actions.
He has yet to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in a California state court on Monday, according to Business Insider.
Kail has more than 23 years of experience in IT operations, focusing on highly scalable architectures. He spent three years at Netflix before departing in August to take up the role of chief information officer (CIO) and senior vice-president of infrastructure at Yahoo! He currently leads the tech company’s IT and data centre operations, reporting directly to CEO Marissa Mayer.
“I’m looking forward to leading Yahoo!’s world-class infrastructure teams, which will continue to provide the web scale architecture that enables the many outstanding products of the company,” said Kail following his appointment.
Netflix image via Shutterstock
