Former Microsoft employee gets jail time for fraud

A former Microsoft employee was sentenced to 17 months in prison Tuesday after fraudulently ordering more than $6 million in software and then selling it to a third party.

Kori Robin Brown, 31, was an administrative assistant in Microsoft’s Xbox division when she used her work computer to order millions of dollars worth of high-end software from ClientLogic, a business providing warehouse facilities for Microsoft.

She then sold the software to a third party for between $50,000 and $100,000, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, where Brown was sentenced. The crimes were committed sometime between Oct. 13, 1998 and August 4, 2000, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Because Brown either had the software sent directly to her or to entities identified as charities, and not for legitimate business reasons, she was sentenced for mail fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Seattle U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman sentenced Brown to 17 months in prison, followed by three years of supervision after release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Brown is not the first Microsoft employee to be nabbed for misappropriating software. In June, former Microsoft employee Richard Gregg was accused of ordering $17 million worth of software through Microsoft’s internal purchasing system and selling it for personal gain. Additionally, Daniel Feussner was accused of similar charges last December and fired.

Representatives for Microsoft were not immediately available Wednesday to comment on the latest incident.