Ex-Microsoft Worker Charged in Alleged Scheme To Steal $10M in Gift Cards and Use Funds To Finance Extravagant Purchases (geekwire.com) 55
An anonymous reader shares a report: A former Microsoft worker has been arrested and charged with mail fraud, in an alleged scheme to steal $10 million worth of digital currency from his ex-employer and use the funds to finance extravagant purchases, including a Tesla and lakefront home. Volodymyr Kvashuk, a 25-year-old software developer and Ukrainian citizen who worked for Microsoft from 2016 to 2018, allegedly took advantage of a testing program meant to simulate customer purchases. He made test accounts to obtain Microsoft gift cards and then sold some or all of them through online resellers.
extravagant purchases? (Score:2, Insightful)
How is a Tesla and a lakefront home considered "extravagant purchases"? That is pretty much the lifestyle of people in the industry. Even I make $50,000 in San Jose in IT.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I was going to say - my wife and I do not consider our Teslas as extravagant. A bit pricey for us, but not extravagant.
Most people in the top 1% self-identify as "middle class".
They don't even realize how out-of-touch they are with the problems and concerns of normal people.
Re:extravagant purchases? (Score:4, Informative)
If you earn $32,000 a year you are in the top 1% on the planet. So yeah.
Re: (Score:2)
what you earn in a year is not important. This is what matters : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:extravagant purchases? (Score:4, Insightful)
How is a Tesla and a lakefront home considered "extravagant purchases"?
You might be just a little out of touch with the perspective of the median American.
Re: (Score:1)
The average American makes a lot of money in IT in San Jose and drives a Tesla. They supplement their income using Youtube.
Re:extravagant purchases? (Score:4, Informative)
1a. Tesla's vehicles are categorized as "luxury" vehicles.
1b. The cheapest Tesla Model 3 starts at $39,000, but the Honda Accord retails for $24,000.
2a. Waterfront property is a luxury expense given that it's significantly more expensive (per sq.ft) than property far from water.
3. The median household income in the US is $61,000/year.
If your experience is that those types of purchases are the norm even with your $50k salary in San Jose, then you may not fully understand how much debt people are taking on to meet that lifestyle expectation.
Re: (Score:1)
He works in IT for Microsoft. What is the median household income?
Re: (Score:3)
FTFA:
He allegedly used the money to buy a $160,000 Tesla vehicle and a $1.6 million lakefront home.
$1.6 million in California gets you a house the size of Ted Kaczynski's shack.
$16 million is average middle class.
$169 million would be extravagant.
Re: (Score:2)
$1.6 million in California gets you a house the size of Ted Kaczynski's shack.
For an extra $100k, California will remove Ted Kaczynski from the house.
----
Yes yes, I know Kaczynski is imprisoned in Colorado. It was a joke, son.
Re: (Score:2)
Even I make $50,000 in San Jose in IT.
First of all... my condolences. A $50k annual salary in San Jose isn't even enough for basic housing;
let alone to own a Tesla. Second... perhaps there's a chance you aren't their cheap foreign labor?
Kvashuk, a 25-year-old software developer and Ukrainian citizen
Ok... more seriously: the summary said $10 Million. I would hazard a guess that buys a little more than a Home and a Tesla... I checked prices for waterfront homes in San Jose.. approximate
Re: (Score:2)
Did I mention I get a Christmas bonus?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You don't get that full value when you "exchange" it for "real" money.
Maybe you do and maybe you don't. You maintain a majority of the value --- it doesn't really explain $10 million becoming less than 50% of that. There is a very high demand for MS products, so similarly to an Amazon GC; a Microsoft store giftcard is almost as good as cash. I check eBay for completed listings on Microsoft store gift cards,
and I see $50 gift cards regularly selling for prices such as $48 and $40.
A very slight discount
BTC (Score:3)
The complaint alleges KVASHUK resold the value on the internet, using the proceeds to purchase a $160,000 Tesla vehicle and a $1.6 million dollar lakefront home.... In all, over the seven months of KVASHUK’s illegal activity, approximately $2.8 million was transferred to his bank accounts......He used a bitcoin “mixing” service in an attempt to hide the source of the funds ultimately passing into his bank account.
The 24-year old was so confident that he could use BTC to cover his tracks that he bought a $1.6 million home and started commuting from it to work in a $.160 million Telsa. Wow, what a dumbass!
Re: (Score:2)
he bought a $1.6 million home and started commuting from it to work in a $.160 million Telsa.
The Tesla may raise some eyebrows, but a $1.6M house in Seattle is a nice home in a middle class neighborhood.
Re:How was he able to steal so much? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:How was he able to steal so much? (Score:5, Interesting)
"But he stole 10 million through this test program, and nobody noticed until it got up to 10 million?"
Large corporations aren't going into transaction records individually. These things usually show up when they're totally out of the blue (i.e. $10 million went missing at once) or much later on when an auditor/forensic accountant finds an interesting thread to pull. I'm assuming this test program was used to steal the money slowly...then Microsoft starts wondering why they lost so much on affiliate marketing/rewards programs. Never underestimate forensic accountants...once they find something a little off they will dig and dig until they find the cause. Nothing will trip a large corporation's sensors beyond a few thousand at a time...it's when it adds up that people start noticing.
Several years ago, there was a story about a Verizon employee who took advantage of a loophole in Cisco's warranty replacement policy. Over a period of years, he filed false warranty claims on lots of high-end gear, then sold the replacement parts on eBay for tons of money. (Cisco had some sort of agreement with Verizon in place that they didn't request the parts be shipped back.) Apparently it took years, plus him getting more greedy/brazen for someone to finally pick up on it.
Re: (Score:2)
That's the way you really steal, a little at a time, for a long time.
It makes you wonder what percentage of corporate expenses are a byproduct of the nongreedy people bleeding their employers a little at a time.
Re: (Score:2)
"But he stole 10 million through this test program, and nobody noticed until it got up to 10 million?"
I take it you've never worked for a large corporation. They only care about wastage when they're losing money. Any large corporation will have the same bureaucracy and inefficiency as government but with less scruples, that is a function of size rather than stakeholder. Its easy to have a scam fly under the radar.
He didn't actually get caught by Microsoft, he was caught when he bought an expensive house and car with cash. Unexpected and unexplained purchases are huge red flags to tax departments, it's ho
Once Again (Score:2)
Just another case of MS brutally stifling innovation.
What's really stupid. (Score:1)
What, did you think he'd use it to buy soup? (Score:2)
Point being, "Ex-Microsoft Worker Charged in Alleged Scheme To Steal $10M in Gift Cards", was sufficient for the headline. If he did something unusual with the money, like blow it all on cans of soup (not Warhol's), it might be worth mentioning, but since he didn't, it wasn't.