In 2016 Yasser Elabd received an installment of $40,000 to a customer in Africa that did not smell like it was. The money was from Microsoft’s speculation store — a store of cash was used to close arrangements and launching new business lines. The client mentioned in the request for information wasn’t an actual client by any stretch of the imagination, and was not on the internal client list. He was a former Microsoft representative who was dismissed for a poor performance and had resigned from the company so last year that the guidelines of Microsoft could have ruled him out of endorsement.
It seemed a bit suspect and more like an offer to pay off rather instead of a legitimate business requirement but when he tried to push for further subtilities, the directors started to rebuff. In the end the installment was stopped but there would have been more extensive outcomes, and not a single were interested in exploring deeper. He accepted that his co-workers were more comfortable with this kind of installment than he.
In the following two years Elabd claims he tried everything he could to rid himself of these peaceful payoutswhich made him untouchable by his colleagues and eventually resulted in him losing his job. But, looking back to the time, he recognizes that Microsoft was not keen on stopping the payments, preferring to let fake agreements fail and then acknowledge the associated money.
