To address the controversy, Yahoo paid US$17.3 million to establish a trust fund devoted to helping imprisoned Chinese dissidents.
The Yahoo Human Rights Trust entered and exited this world under unfortunate circumstances.
Times Wang, a lawyer in the law firm representing the Chinese dissidents, said Yahoo "abandoned its responsibilities to Trust beneficiaries" by standing idly while aware that its humanitarian trust fund was being squandered.
Yahoo declined to comment on the lawsuit, and Laogai couldn't be reached. The discussions have been buffeted by revelations that Yahoo delayed disclosures of huge hacking intrusions that compromised its computer network.
This new lawsuit is a supremely awkward cherry on top for Yahoo, as it just announced a merger with AOL under the rebranded name "Oath". In 2007, the company belatedly acknowledged that it had provided Chinese authorities with the identities of subscribers in China whose emails had angered the government.
In a public rebuke, a congressional panel criticized Yahoo's CEO at the time, Jerry Yang, and accused him of lying about the company's cooperation with Chinese security officials.
"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies", Rep.
Ala. Gov. Robert Bentley Resigns Because He's a Messy Thot
Bentley's efforts to dispose of the recordings led to numerous misuse of funds accusations he would later plead guilty to. Robert Bentley has officially resigned as Alabama's governor, according to supernumerary District Attorney Ellen Brooks.
All told, only $700,000 of the earmarked $17 million made its way to Chinese dissidents or their families. The US citizen and director of the Washington-based human rights organisation Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) died in April 2016. With little oversight from top brass at Yahoo, Wu spent the money on expensive real estate - including a $2.5 million townhouse in Washington DC - no-show positions for his wife and associates, and a $60,000 raise for himself.
Yahoo and the two dissidents' families settled in 2007 for an undisclosed amount, and as part of the settlement, Yahoo agreed to create a relief fund for others imprisoned for speaking out against the government online.
Of the original $17.3 million, less than $3 million is thought to remain.
Wu died past year at age 79 while on vacation in Honduras. The museum he created in Dupont Circle was closed shortly after his death, and several people involved with the foundation said it has been crippled by internecine fighting and litigation.
The complaint alleges that Yahoo allowed Harry Wu, a now-deceased dissident from China, to spend about $13 million of the fund enriching himself and pursuing other projects tied to his interests. The legal action, which Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll is mounting in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks the return of the money from Laogai, the full funding of the trust set up for dissidents and a commitment that all of it must go to them.
The lawsuit said Yahoo had the duty to ensure that the money got used correctly, but that it did not oversee Hu's activities.
"For the sake of future activists and the broader rights movement in China, we call on Yahoo to do the right thing and stand with those on the frontlines of this fight for civil liberty", he added.
Comments