Brief: Uber reviews Asia business over bribery allegations

New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Photo credit: Uber.

The news (extracted from Bloomberg):

• Facing a US federal probe into whether it broke laws against overseas bribery, Uber has embarked on a review of its Asia operations and notified US officials about payments made by staff in Indonesia, according to Bloomberg sources.
• The ride-hailing giant is working with a law firm to examine records of foreign payments and interview employees, raising questions about why some potentially problematic business dealings weren’t disclosed sooner.
• Lawyers are focused on suspicious activity in at least five Asian countries: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea.

Why it matters:

• Uber is already facing a separate federal inquiry over alleged deception of law enforcement officials. It’s also facing lawsuits, including trade secret theft charges lodged by Alphabet’s self-driving company Waymo.
• The mounting legal troubles have played a role in the departures of several top executives, including Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, who was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO. Uber’s head of compliance left this month and its head of Asia this week, while its chief legal officer plans to depart soon, Bloomberg also reports.
• The slew of bad press has supposedly knocked US$10 billion off Uber’s value this year.