New WPP Suit Filing Claims Sony's Own Probe Found Rebate Fraud
A New York State Supreme Court filing dated Thursday adds a new allegation to Richard Foster's retaliation suit against WPP: that Sony, a major WPP client, reached the same conclusions Foster did after running its own investigation into WPP's practices. Foster, a former WPP executive, claims the company fired them after they tried to expose an illegal media rebate scheme. The dispute traces back to a 2023 scandal in which Chinese authorities detained, and later convicted, three GroupM China executives over a kickback scheme valued at ¥1.2 billion, roughly $176 million. Sony launched its investigation in the aftermath of that scandal, according to the amended complaint.
The claim remains unproven: it appears in Foster's amended complaint and has not been confirmed independently by Sony or WPP. It adds to the scrutiny already triggered by the 2023 GroupM China conviction, giving agencies and advertisers another data point on how media rebates get negotiated inside a major holding company. Foster's suit and Sony's investigation continue through the New York court system, with no ruling yet on either set of claims.