U.S. officials are expanding their probe into Microsoft’s alleged bribes to foreign clients in exchange for software contracts.

The scope of the investigation now includes activity in Russia and Pakistan, the Wall Street Journal reported(Opens in a new window), citing people familiar with the matter.

In March, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission began looking into deals secured in China, Romania, and Italy. At the time, Redmond declined to comment on the ongoing inquiries, but acknowledged that a company as big as Microsoft is bound to stumble on a few bad apples.

This week, John Frank, Microsoft’s vice president and deputy counsel, reiterated his earlier remarks in a blog post(Opens in a new window), saying that the company takes “every allegation seriously, and we cooperate fully in any government inquiries.”

“Like other large companies with operations around the world, we sometimes receive allegations about potential misconduct by employees or business partners, and we investigate them fully, regardless of the source,” Frank said.

According to the Journal, Microsoft was tipped off that Russian resellers were offering kickbacks to executives of a local company in order to secure a deal. In Pakistan, meanwhile, an anonymous informant said that Microsoft authorized a consulting firm to subsidize a five-day trip to Egypt for a government official and his wife, in an effort to earn a payout.

Both situations were reported within the last eight months, the paper said.

A spokeswoman from the Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment on the situation; the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to PCMag’s request for comment.

As the Journal pointed out, this Microsoft probe is just one of dozens being conducted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which bans American-traded companies from paying bribes to foreign officials.

This news comes as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today announced he will retire from the software giant within 12 months. Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was named CEO in 2000, but became the real public face of the company after Bill Gates retired as chief software architect and chairman in 2008.