A 57-year-old former senior executive at Woolworths (WOW) has been charged for taking $3.7 million worth of kickbacks from awarding $37 million contracts a decade ago. A spokesperson from Woolworths said that the fraud charges were related to the retailer's MIS division (management information systems) before 1999. The former executive spent 9 years at WOW. The investigations, code-named Strike Force Whittlesford, have been following the worldwide money trait since 1999. The exeutive in question was charged with three counts of a director or officer cheating or defrauding, two counts of conspiracy to cheat or defraud, receiving corrupt commission, corrupt inducement for advice and two counts of money laundering. Kickbacks are a bribe to the subject to influence their conduct, its illegal since the subject has a responsibility and fiduciary duty to their shareholders.