Yet another company has been slapped with a lawsuit. Yahoo Inc is being sued by a group of Chinese dissidents on claims that the company “failed to safeguard more than $17 million it pledged to help jailed Chinese dissidents in a 2007 settlement.” According to the lawsuit, Yahoo “willfully turned a blind eye while Harry Wu, a high-profile political activist charged with administering the funds, used them for personal gain.”
Yet another company has been slapped with a lawsuit. Yahoo Inc is being sued by a group of Chinese dissidents on claims that the company “failed to safeguard more than $17 million it pledged to help jailed Chinese dissidents in a 2007 settlement.” According to the lawsuit, Yahoo “willfully turned a blind eye while Harry Wu, a high-profile political activist charged with administering the funds, used them for personal gain.”
According to court documents, Yahoo had a “legal duty to make sure the funds were used properly,” to ensure the funds were used to help the jailed dissidents. However, the settlement was used as “window-dressing to stem the immense criticism over Yahoo’s complicity in egregious human rights violations.” In fact, of the $17.3 million settlement, only $700,000 of the settlement fund has “actually been used to help jailed dissidents,” the lawsuit claims.
Why was the settlement fund set up in the first place, though? Well, for those who don’t know, Yahoo “established the fund to settle a lawsuit brought by the company’s users in China, who were jailed for expressing their political views after Yahoo turned over information about them to the Chinese government.”
Wu, who passed away last April, was appointed the administrator of the settlement fund. Before his passing, he worked as a director of the Laogai Research Foundation, a Washington-based human rights organization. His “estate is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit,” according to Reuters.
In the lawsuit, Wu has been accused of a number of things, including “using the funds for person gain” and “giving himself and his wife substantial raises.” According to the dissidents, Wu also used some of the settlement funds “to defend himself against lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment and misusing federal grant money.”
While all of this was allegedly going on, the dissidents claim Yahoo ignored “numerous red flags, including direct warnings from an employee of the foundation and concerns from a shareholder.” Because of all of this, the lawsuit is demanding that the “full amount of the settlement fund be replenished and that the settlement be modified to ensure that dissidents are the sole beneficiaries.”
In response to the allegations and lawsuit in general, Mike Sefanov, a Yahoo spokesman, has declined to comment so far on the basis that the “company does not discuss ongoing litigation.”
Sources:
Yahoo accused of mismanaging funds meant for Chinese dissidents
Yahoo sued over allegedly mismanaging $17m humanitarian fund meant for Chinese dissidents
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