Chinese drone-maker DJI Technology is investigating its staff members regarding allegations of corruption which has elevated product prices. Some 16 people have already been reported to authorities.

More than 100 people are involved while 45 employees or former ones have been placed under investigation. The losses are expected to exceed CNY1 billion (USD147.6 million), which is twice the amount of the firm's year-end bonus in 2017.

"The scope of corruption is much larger than expected, and we are now only dealing with the tip of the iceberg," the Shenzhen-based company said to All Weather TMT. DJI is gathering resources to build a professional anti-corruption team, an insider said.

The firm has handed 16 of the former employees to law enforcement and 29 have been dismissed. At 26 people, most of the workers related to the anti-graft campaign are from the research and development department, as well as the procurement division. Some 19 work in sales, administration, design and factories.

The average purchase price of DJI exceeded a reasonable level by more than 20 percent due to corruption in the supply chain last year, the report added.

Founded in 2006, DJI has 14,000 employees.

Official response from DJI on the fraud committed by employees

“We hold our employees to the highest ethical standards and take any violation of our code of ethics very seriously. During a recent investigation, DJI itself found some employees inflated the cost of parts and materials for certain products for personal financial gain. We took swift action to address this issue, fired the bad actors, and contacted law enforcement officials. We continue to investigate the situation and are cooperating fully with law enforcement’s investigation.”

“These actions do not represent DJI, our culture, or our 14,000 employees, who work hard every day to serve customers and develop cutting-edge technologies. We are taking steps to strengthen internal controls and have established new channels for employees to submit confidential and anonymous reports relating to any violations of the company’s ethical and workplace conduct policies.”

Actually such thing is almost impossible without top management and all sales managers involvement.

It seems that before 2019 turbulent time DJI is getting rid of one in the list of excessive expenses.