Ex-Microsoft engineer gets 9-year jail sentence for scams plan

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Revealed: The Secrets our Clients Used to Earn $3 Billion

A previous Microsoft engineer is implicated of defrauding the business.


Angela Lang/CNET

A previous Microsoft engineer was sentenced to 9 years in jail by a federal court in Seattle on Monday for defrauding the tech giant of countless dollars.  Volodymyr Kvashuk, 26, acquired 18 federal felonies connected to his plan to defraud Microsoft of more than $10 million, according to the United States Department of Justice. He was likewise bought to pay more than $8 million in restitution. 

Kvashuk, a Ukrainian person living in Renton, Washington, started as a professional and after that worked as a staff member at Microsoft from August 2016 till June 2018, when he was fired. In February, he was “convicted by a jury of five counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering, two counts of aggravated identity theft, two counts of filing false tax returns, and one count each of mail fraud, access device fraud, and access to a protected computer in furtherance of fraud,” according to the Justice Department. 

“Stealing from your employer is bad enough, but stealing and making it appear that your colleagues are to blame widens the damage beyond dollars and cents,” United States Attorney Brian T. Moran stated in a declaration. “This case required sophisticated, technological skills to investigate and prosecute.”

Kvashuk was charged with screening Microsoft’s online retail sales platform and utilized that access to take currency saved worth, like digital present cards. He then offered that worth online, eventually utilizing his revenues to purchase a $1.6 million lakefront house and a $160,000 Tesla. 

He started taking smaller sized quantities worth an overall of around $12,000 utilizing his own account, the Justice Department stated. Then, as the thefts developed, Kvashuk started utilizing test e-mail accounts connected to fellow staff members. He worked to cover his tracks by utilizing a bitcoin “mixing” service that would conceal the source of the funds winding up in his checking account. Over 7 months, around $2.8 million in bitcoin was moved to his bank and financial investment accounts. Kvashuk submitted phony income tax return kinds and stated the bitcoin was a present. 

“Kvashuk’s criminal acts of stealing from Microsoft, and subsequent filing false tax returns, is the nation’s first Bitcoin case that has a tax component to it,” Ryan L. Korner, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unique representative in charge, stated in a declaration. “Today’s sentencing proves you cannot steal money via the Internet and think that Bitcoin is going to hide your criminal behaviors.”