Business Insider Reports Sony Investigation Found “Global Crime Scheme” Within Foster’s Whistleblower Amended Complaint v. WPP
NEW YORK – Business Insider reports that Sony commissioned an investigation into WPP’s media rebate practices and, according to a new filing in whistleblower Richard Foster’s lawsuit against WPP, concluded that the advertising giant operated a “global crime scheme” that improperly withheld millions in rebates from clients.
According to Foster’s amended complaint, Sony presented WPP with its investigative findings in 2025. The Sony presentation describes the practice in China and other markets as a “fraud scheme,” attributing its design to the same senior WPP executives identified in Foster's whistleblower reports. The Sony investigation allegedly draws on their review of a criminal trial involving WPP executives in China, interviews with former WPP and GroupM executives, and WPP’s own contractual, financial and tracking records.
A Sony slide titled “impact for WPP Advertisers – China 2024” claims approximately $110 million went back to clients that year, while $350 million remained in WPP’s rebate pool “for later utilization.”
Sony’s report provides significant support for Foster’s allegations in his legal battle with WPP. Namely, that WPP’s media investment operation used clients’ collective advertising spend to generate rebates, routed those rebates through intermediary brokers, and retained a portion of the resulting value as profit rather than returning it to the clients whose spending generated it.
For Foster, Sony’s findings reinforce the various warnings he raised for years inside WPP – warnings he alleges the company answered by firing him when he refused to stay silent.
"Richard Foster asked a question any agency should be prepared to answer: Are your profits derived from loyal service to your clients, or not?" said William A. Brewer III, partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors and lead counsel to Foster. “When Mr. Foster concluded that Defendants did not have honest answers to that question, he informed the CEO — and was summarily fired."
Read the article here.