As 2017 ended, there would be one more scandal as Amazon and Microsoft employees were accused of taking part in a sex-trafficking crime. Employees of these big-time companies would allegedly send emails to pimps back and forth in the hopes of having sexual-intercourse with trafficked women. Transactions between the pimps and employees were done over the employees’ work email accounts to ensure that the employees were not cops trying to arrest the pimps for their crimes.

“I find it surprising how neither Amazon or Microsoft noticed that their employees were basically buying women while using their work emails. The choices their employees made does not represent the company completely, but the company should have been more aware of these actions,” junior Nelsa Tejada said.

The emails were exposed to the public by Newsweek,who requested that the Prosecutor’s Office in King County give them the emails on many occasions. They revealed that between the years of 2014 and 2016, employees of Amazon and Microsoft purchased services from trafficked sex workers. 67 of the emails were sent by Microsoft employees, 63 by Amazon workers and the rest were from local companies and firms. Those involved attempted to hide the crime by pretending that the pimps were emailing the wrong person.

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I think it’s such a horrible abuse of power for these employees to use their work emails to take advantage of these women in such a horrible way. They are basically stripping them of their humanity by treating them like products.

— senior Isabella Fernandez

Both companies, Microsoft and Amazon, reached out to Newsweek in order to explain where they stand and how they plan to move forward regarding the employees’ crimes. “Microsoft has a long history of cooperating with law enforcement on combating sex trafficking and related topics, and we have employees who volunteer their time and money specifically to combat this issue as well. The personal conduct of a tiny fraction of our 125,000 employees does not in any way represent our culture,” the company said in a statement. Additionally, Microsoft has made it very clear to the public that when they hire an employee, they expect them to “act with integrity and act in a legal and ethical manner at all times.” Moreover, Amazon’s Owner’s Manual states that “it is against Amazon’s policy for any employee or Contingent Worker to engage in any sex buying activities of any kind in Amazon’s workplace or in any work-related setting outside of the workplace, such as business-related events.” In fact, if Amazon suspects that an employee is using the resources or funds from company to participate in crimes, then the company will investigate their employee and take measures to resolve the problem.

Although it is still unclear what sort of action the companies will be taking against the employees involved, both continue to actively investigate the issue.