Former Netflix Executive Gets Prison Time For Receiving Kickbacks

LOS GATOS, CA — A former Netflix executive was sentenced to 30 months in prison for receiving bribes and kickbacks from nine tech companies that were providing products or services to Netflix, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

Michael Kail, a 52-year-old Los Gatos resident, was the Vice President of IT Operations from 2011 until 2014. Kail received over $500,000 and stock options from multiple companies, and in exchange he approved millions of dollars in contracts for goods and services, according to federal prosecutors.

Kail was found guilty in April on 28 of 29 counts that included several counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

“Bribery and kickbacks are pernicious crimes that stifle Silicon Valley’s culture of competitive innovation,” Acting United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said in a statement. “Michael Kail used his highly compensated Netflix position to siphon cash and valuable stock options from his tech vendors, the same vendors whose Netflix contracts he signed and whose technologies he pushed his teams to use. Such crimes come with a cost, as reflected by the prison sentence that Kail will now serve.”

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman also ordered Kail to forfeit $700,000, pay a $50,000 fine and serve three years of supervision upon release.