Daily Management Review

Japan's Fujitsu faces sanctions over email scandal in the UK


01/11/2024


According to the Financial Times, the Japanese IT giant Fujitsu is facing financial penalties for giving the British postal corporation Post Office defective software that resulted in the false prosecution of hundreds of post office managers for allegedly embezzling money.



JiriMatejicek
JiriMatejicek
At least 700 Post Office managers faced charges of fraud, theft, and fraudulent accounting between 1999 and 2015; the prosecution used information from Fujitsu's malfunctioning Horizon computer system. Numerous individuals experienced financial ruin or incarceration, and a minimum of four took their own lives. The British media regarded the controversy as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent history of the country.

According to Kevin Hollinrake, parliamentary deputy minister for business and commerce, "the scenario in which Fujitsu would have to pay part of the bill to compensate (the post office executives) is "realistic" if the company is proven "responsible of the scandal."

Hollinrake noted that the government is almost ready to exonerate the post office chiefs who were wrongfully convicted. Emergency legislation to overturn convictions based on Horizon data is not out of the question, but he cautioned that it might be viewed as "interfering with the independent courts process."

source: ft.com