Did Uber break U.S. anti-corruption laws as part of a secret lobbying scheme to conquer the Russian market? Among the confidential documents from the “Uber Files” are numerous elements attesting to a deliberate strategy of the Californian group to buy the favors and protection of politicians and lobbyists known to be close to the Kremlin, between 2014 and 2016.
“Uber Files”, an international investigation
“Uber Files” is an investigation based on thousands of internal Uber documents sent by an anonymous source to the British daily The Guardianand forwarded to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 42 media partners, including The world.
Emails, presentations, meeting minutes… These 124,000 documents, dated from 2013 to 2017, offer a rare dive into the mysteries of a start-up which was then seeking to establish itself in cities around the world despite a regulatory context. unfavorable. They detail how Uber has used, in France as elsewhere, all the tricks of lobbying to try to change the law to its advantage.
The “Uber Files” also reveal how the Californian group, determined to impose itself by a fait accompli and, if necessary, by operating illegally, has implemented practices deliberately playing with the limits of the law, or which may amount to judicial obstruction of the investigations of which he was the subject.
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To deploy in Russia, “one of the markets with the greatest potential for growth” but subject to “fierce competition”, the American giant directly paid a prominent businessman in Moscow to try to influence a bill under discussion on taxis. At least 300,000 dollars, or 270,000 euros, were thus paid, in 2016, to Vladimir Senin, then vice-president of Alfa Bank and member of a pro-Kremlin political party, so that he supports Uber on the legislative and regulatory fronts. And this, despite internal warnings about a possible violation of the 1977 law against the corruption of foreign public officials (the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act).
As early as April 2016, a senior Uber executive warned colleagues by email that Uber’s lawyers are “rightly concerned about bribes paid to grease the skates”. In fact, several former US prosecutors and corruption experts interviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) believe that the circumstances in which Uber paid Mr. Senin could constitute a violation of US anti-corruption laws.
Contacted, Uber confirmed the existence of the payment to Mr. Senin – since elected deputy to the Duma – for a mission of “government relations”. However, the company assured that its “Current leaders disavow any prior relationship with anyone connected to the regime of [Vladimir] Cheese fries “distancing itself from the strategy of former CEO Travis Kalanick, who left in 2017 amid multiple scandals. “Uber’s current management believes that [Vladimir] Putin engaged in misconduct and disapproves of any connection with him or those close to him”adds the American giant.
Currying with the Kremlin
The survey conducted by the ICIJ shows, however, that these links were numerous. Uber has targeted several particularly powerful Russian oligarchs, investing them in the company in order to secure their political support. This is how Alicher Ousmanov, German Gref, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, courted for their influence with Vladimir Putin, invested several hundred million dollars in the American company, through their banks, holding companies or investment funds. ‘investment. These four oligarchs were hit by international sanctions after the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine earlier this year.
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