Three weeks ago, DJI released a statement regarding its ongoing investigation into an alleged corruption scandal that could ultimately cost the Chinese drone manufacturer upwards of more than $ 150 million. Now, DJI has published an open letter on its website detailing more information and urging ‘the media to pay close attention to the facts [DJI has] presented.’
In its initial statement, DJI said that during its internal investigation regarding the alleged corruption, ‘DJI itself found some employees inflated the cost of parts and materials for certain products for personal financial gain […] DJI took swift action to address this issue, dismissed a number of employees who violated company policies, and contacted law enforcement officials.‘
Since the initial statement, DJI has published an open letter on its website that provides more details on the investigation, the events that led up to it and what it plans to do going forward.
‘As DJI embarked on a management reform effort last year, we discovered problems that had evolved during our period of high growth,‘ reads the letter. It later goes on to say ‘DJI has discovered instances of cost inefficiency, purchasing manipulations and outright theft. We cannot ignore these issues. Indeed, for the sake of the vast majority of our employees who work hard and honestly, we need to uncover and eliminate these problems.‘
Although it’s not a full-fledged apology to consumers and investors, DJI does accept blame for letting the corruption getting as bad as it did, saying ‘in the past emphasized corporate growth over new internal processes.‘
DJI says fostering better management will be the key to eliminating such corruption in the future and says ‘will now take a leading role in developing clear policies, procedures and expectations to address corner-cutting and employee theft‘ and calls upon other companies to implement similar processes.
The letter also implores the media to ‘pay close attention to the facts we have presented.’
DJI has been expected to file for IPO in 2019, so these statements and open letters appear to be a part of an intense effort to suppress the fallout from the corruption and its financial implications.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)