Microsoft has been helping to fund a letter-writing campaign to pressure state attorneys general to go easy in their antitrust lawsuits against the software giant, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Two letters sent earlier this year to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff contained the names of dead people, the newspaper said.
The letter-writing campaign targeted some of the 18 attorneys general whose states have joined the U.S. Justice Department in a sweeping antitrust lawsuit. No two letters are identical but some contain similar wording and appeared to be written spontaneously by ordinary people, the newspaper said.
"It's sleazy," said Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch, whose office received about 300 pro-Microsoft letters. "This is not a company that appears to be bothered by ethical boundaries."
Microsoft officials said they are responding to the lobbying efforts of competitors who have waged political campaigns against the company.
"It's not surprising that companies and organizations that support Microsoft are mobilizing to counter that lobby," Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma told the Times.
The campaign was orchestrated by a group partly funded by Microsoft called Americans for Technology Leadership, the Times said, adding it wasn't known how much money the organization receives from the software giant. The group's executive director, Jim Prendergast, said people are called and asked to sign letters in support of Microsoft.
"We'd write the letter and then send it to them," he said. "That's fairly common practice."
The names of the two dead people on the letters sent to Shurtleff had been crossed out and signed by other family members,the Times reported.
A federal judge last year found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations. Earlier this month, an appeals court cleared the way for a new judge to decide the penalty.
