A former Netflix executive is facing up to 20 years in prison after being convicted on 28 of 29 counts he was was charged with, including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. 

It all stems from an alleged kickback scheme federal prosecutors say Michael Kail oversaw when he ran the internet technology department at Netflix. 

Kai’s attorney said the verdict was unfair. ”We are very disappointed in the jury’s verdict. It goes to show that an innocent person can be convicted when there are so many counts stacked against them and there is a powerful corporation, Netflix, driving the investigation and prosecution.”

Here’s how prosecutors said it all went down. They say Kail accepted over half a million dollars in in kickbacks, as well as valuable stock options from nine different tech companies that were looking to do business with Netflix. 

The Feds showed in court that Kail put together an LLC where the bribes were received.  He would then use the bribe money for personal expenses, and he also allegedly used the funds to purchase a home in the Bay Area. 

Netflix has rules in place that prohibits their employees from having conflicts of interest, and require employees to self report anything that might potentially be fishy. 

Kail’s attorney said not only is her client not guilty, but he played a big role in driving the success of Netflix as a cutting-edge tech company. 

It would be shocking to learn that this doesn’t happen frequently at many big tech companies where vendors or businesses line up to try to work with them. 

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