Uber faces US Department of Justice bribery investigation

Uber is the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) into potential bribery offences.

The DoJ has started the preliminary process of opening an official investigation into allegations that managers at the embattled tech company breached the Foreign Corrupt Practises Act US legislation which prohibits companies from bribing foreign government officials for business reasons it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal.

The company has confirmed to IT Pro that it will be fully co-operating with the DoJ in its investigation.

It is currently unknown which specific country or countries the investigation is focused on, but it may be related to claims that Uber may have used bribery to obtain the medical records of a Delhi woman who was raped by an Uber driver in 2014. The company hired a law firm earlier this year to mount an investigation into these claims.

Uber has been plagued by scandals and setbacks for most of this year; accusations of systemic sexism from a female former engineer kicked off a chain reaction which saw the company shed numerous executives, including founder and then-CEO Travis Kalanick.

The top spot has now been accepted by Expedia's former CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who assumes command at a time when the company is embroiled in a number of serious legal cases and investigations, many centering around its tumultuous relationship with regulatory authorities and law enforcement.

Uber is still under investigation by the DoJ over its use of 'Greyball' software, which helped it to identify and avoid government officials who may have been attempting to investigate it. The company is also fending off claims from Google-owned Waymo that former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski stole trade secrets and research when he left to join Uber.

Adam Shepherd

Adam Shepherd has been a technology journalist since 2015, covering everything from cloud storage and security, to smartphones and servers. Over the course of his career, he’s seen the spread of 5G, the growing ubiquity of wireless devices, and the start of the connected revolution. He’s also been to more trade shows and technology conferences than he cares to count.

Adam is an avid follower of the latest hardware innovations, and he is never happier than when tinkering with complex network configurations, or exploring a new Linux distro. He was also previously a co-host on the ITPro Podcast, where he was often found ranting about his love of strange gadgets, his disdain for Windows Mobile, and everything in between.

You can find Adam tweeting about enterprise technology (or more often bad jokes) @AdamShepherUK.