Fujitsu executives received a payment of £26 million under the Horizon contract.

Over the course of 25 years since the commencement of the contentious Horizon contract with the Post Office, Fujitsu UK compensated its senior executives with an amount exceeding £26 million. Additionally, the analysis of accounts conducted by the BBC revealed payments exceeding £11 million to former directors for their departure during that period.

During Duncan Tait’s tenure as the UK head, the highest-paid director earned £2.5 million. Fujitsu has issued an apology to sub-postmasters and expressed its commitment to contributing to compensation efforts.

Central to the Post Office controversy was the flawed Horizon computer system, which produced unexplained errors from its inception to the present day. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted over a decade, falsely accused of errors generated by the flawed system.

The Horizon system was developed by the British computer company ICL, later renamed Fujitsu after being acquired by its Japanese owners in 2002.

While Fujitsu’s UK bosses’ salaries are not explicitly listed in its accounts, the company’s European subsidiaries, Fujitsu Services Ltd (FSL) and Fujitsu Services Holdings Ltd (FSHL) report the “total emoluments” of their highest-paid director, which include base salary, bonuses, and long-term incentives.

These revelations showcase how directors received substantial payments, while sub-postmasters faced legal battles based on false data from Fujitsu’s faulty computer system.

Former Post Office manager Alison Hall, whose false accounting conviction was overturned in 2021, expressed her dismay, stating, “I just think it’s absolutely disgusting.” Labour MP Kevan Jones, a campaigner for sub-postmasters, emphasized that Fujitsu must account for the consequences of their failure, which led to ruined lives and wrongful imprisonments.

A House of Commons Treasury Select Committee report from 2019 indicated that Fujitsu held contracts totaling £3.4 billion with key government entities. In response to the scandal, Fujitsu announced it would refrain from bidding for public sector contracts unless specifically requested to do so, pending the ongoing statutory inquiry led by Sir Wyn Williams.

During the tumultuous inception of ICL’s IT system for the Benefits Agency and Post Office Counters in the late 1990s, Keith Todd assumed a leadership role at Fujitsu. The Benefits Agency withdrew from the project, resulting in a £180 million loss for ICL. Consequently, the Horizon system was launched exclusively for the Post Office in 1999.

Financial accounts for ICL, which later evolved into FSHL, detail the total pay of its highest-earning director, a position that likely belonged to Mr. Todd, given his role as the chief executive. In the fiscal year ending March 2000, which marked Mr. Todd’s final year in office, the highest-paid director received £412,000.

In addition to his salary, Mr. Todd possessed options to acquire 1.75 million shares, potentially worth millions of pounds if ICL had proceeded with its planned stock market launch.

In 2022, Mr. Todd provided testimony to the Horizon Inquiry, revealing that in 1999, there was a looming possibility of the Post Office cancelling the troubled project. In January of that year, Mr. Todd alerted the UK government that the flotation of ICL, and potentially hundreds of jobs at the company were in jeopardy if the project faced cancellation.

Despite Horizon’s survival, the planned stock market launch was abandoned due to challenging market conditions, leading to Mr. Todd’s resignation. In the subsequent year, Fujitsu Services Ltd disbursed £4.4 million as compensation for the departure of an unspecified director or directors, with strong indications that a significant portion, if not all, likely went to Mr. Todd.

It is common for senior directors departing from companies to receive compensation, acknowledging their contributions and compensating for outstanding long-term incentive payments like unexercised share options.

Following Keith Todd’s tenure, Richard Christou, a lawyer-turned-executive hailing from Preston, assumed the role of UK chief executive at Fujitsu. Credited with rescuing ICL, Christou highlighted the acquisition of the Post Office contract as his “proudest moment,” a contract that remains with them and has proven to be their most lucrative over the past 25 years.

In financial records, Christou is identified as the executive chairman of FSHL during the periods 2000–2004 and again in 2009. Throughout these years, the highest-paid director amassed a total of £3.1 million.

Scheduled to testify before the Horizon Inquiry later this year, Mr. Christou is anticipated to provide insights into his leadership during crucial periods for Fujitsu and ICL.

David Courtley succeeded Keith Todd, serving as the chief executive of Fujitsu’s European services business from 2004 to 2008. During these years, the highest-paid director, likely Mr. Courtley but not definitively confirmed, received annual earnings of up to £2.36 million, accumulating to a total of £9.15 million.

In 2009, FSHL compensated £1.59 million for the loss of office, presumably to Mr. Courtley. Following his departure, Richard Christou briefly resumed the top executive position until a replacement was identified.

Subsequently, David Courtley left Fujitsu to assume a leadership role at Phoenix IT. However, within a few months, the company became entangled in an accounting scandal, and Courtley departed 14 months later, although the company asserted that his exit was unrelated to the accounting issues.

Currently, Mr. Courtley operates a small IT consultancy named Mozaic.

In 2009, Roger Gilbert assumed leadership, coinciding with the emergence of major media stories about the Post Office scandal, notably covered by Computer Weekly.

During his initial year, the highest-paid director of FSHL received £917,000, followed by £725,000 the subsequent year. However, Mr. Gilbert, in an interview with the BBC, disputed being the highest-paid director and claimed not to have received anything close to those amounts.

Transitioning to the position of chairman in 2011, he retired the following year. Expressing shock at the Post Office’s prosecution of numerous innocent individuals, Gilbert emphasized the need for a public inquiry to unravel the events. Despite having limited visibility into Horizon operations, he anticipated that the inquiry’s report would offer more profound insights.

Gilbert mentioned that the Horizon scandal was discussed only once at the board level during his tenure, and he was led to believe by the Horizon team that the Post Office was acting “competently and honestly.”

Duncan Tait assumed the role of Fujitsu’s UK & Ireland chief executive in 2011 and was subsequently promoted to Fujitsu’s chief executive of Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa in 2014. In the following year, he earned a position on the board of Fujitsu’s main company in Japan. This period coincided with a substantial increase in pay for the highest-paid director of FSHL, climbing from £1.46 million in 2015 to £1.68 million in 2018 and reaching £2.45 million in 2019.

During Mr. Tait’s leadership, the Horizon affair evolved from media coverage into a national scandal. Internal legal advice signaled to the Post Office that a Fujitsu employee was providing false evidence in court, prompting legal action by the sub-postmasters.

Mr. Tait was identified as the Fujitsu source who informed Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells that Horizon was “like Fort Knox,” a statement she later reiterated in a parliamentary letter in 2020. Mr. Tait clarified that the remark pertained to Horizon’s cybersecurity resilience.

He stepped down in 2019, the same year the sub-postmasters prevailed in their High Court case. While Mr. Tait claims these events are unrelated, the following year, FSHL compensated an unnamed director with £2.61 million for loss of office, presumed to be Mr. Tait.

Subsequently, in 2022, Mr. Tait accepted a new role as the group chief executive of car dealer Inchcape, earning over £4 million. He is scheduled to provide testimony in the upcoming phase of the Horizon Inquiry. Mr. Tait expressed deep concern about the mistreatment of sub-postmasters and postmistresses, pledging support for the inquiry. He acknowledged the severe miscarriage of justice and, along with other Fujitsu representatives, extended apologies for the damage inflicted on the lives of sub-postmasters and postmistresses, as well as any role Fujitsu played in the matter.

He was succeeded by the present chief executive, Paul Patterson, who has held the position throughout the Horizon Inquiry. Patterson provided testimony last month and is scheduled to do so again later this year.

Acknowledging before the Business Select Committee this year, Patterson admitted to the existence of “bugs, errors, and defects” in Horizon from the outset. He apologized for his company’s involvement in the scandal and now confronts the possibility that Fujitsu might be called upon to contribute to the compensation fund for the victims, emphasising the firm’s “moral obligation” to do so.

The highest-paid director at FSHL, presumably Mr. Patterson, witnessed a decrease in pay from £890,000 in 2019 to £408,000 in 2023. Conversely, the highest-paid director at FSL received £1.3 million in 2022, likely Anwen Owen, the head of UK and Ireland, who was the sole director of FSL, not FSHL, that year.

Richard Christou, David Courtley, Anwen Owen, Paul Patterson, and Keith Todd declined to comment for this article. Fujitsu also refrained from commenting on the pay of former and current executives but issued a statement expressing deep apologies to sub-postmasters and their families. The statement indicated the Fujitsu Group’s commitment to collaborating with the UK government based on the Inquiry’s findings, including potential contributions to compensation. The group hoped for a swift resolution ensuring a just outcome for the victims.