How the Ex-Employee Stole From Microsoft
The United States Department of Justice filed a full report on what happened. It covers the actions of Volodymyr Kvashuk, who was hired by Microsoft to help test its online retails sales platform. This put Volodymyr in a position to handle digital gift cards, which he stole for his own needs.
Gift cards are notorious for their role in scams. For instance, some kinds of credit card fraud involve purchasing gift cards to flip on the black market. That’s because gift cards leave less of a paper trail than a bank transfer.
To prevent attracting attention unto himself, Volodymyr put co-workers in the firing line. At the start, when he stole amounts of money that equaled five digits, he used his own account.
However, as the numbers began to scale up, Volodymyr used his co-worker’s test email accounts to cover his tracks. The case file notes that he seemed to have no sympathy for making innocents look guilty.
Once he stole the gift cards, he’d use his technical expertise to erase his trail. This included using a “Bitcoin mixing service,” which allowed him to convert his haul into cryptocurrency. Volodymyr managed to steal $10 million worth of goods, of which $2.8 million managed to land into his personal bank account.
He bought a $160,000 car with these funds and a $1.6 million waterside home before he was caught. US Attorney Moran said the following:
Volodymyr was sentenced to nine years in jail and forced to repay $8,344,586 to Microsoft. He may also face deportation once he leaves jail.
Cryptocurrency Becomes Less of a Safe Haven for Criminals
Part of Volodymyr’s strategy was to launder the money through Bitcoin to hide his tracks. He potentially chose this plan due to cryptocurrency’s reputation for being the currency of choice for ransomware developers.
However, this case shows that cryptocurrency won’t totally mask your activities. IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner stated the following:
As such, this may be the start of law enforcement cracking down on fraud and theft that tries to mask itself using cryptocurrencies.
A Big Win for Microsoft
While Volodymyr managed to siphon a lot of money from Microsoft, the company will be glad to hear that a large majority of it will be repaid from the thief himself.
Not only that, but this case is a huge warning to criminals that using cryptocurrency isn’t a surefire way to hide from the authorities. We’ll have to see if cyber criminals decide to change tactics in light of this event.
While scammers sometimes target large companies for the potential of a huge payout, some try to trick the general public en-masse instead. For instance, some scams falsely state that they’ve caught the victim on adult websites and demand a cryptocurrency payment to keep it a secret.
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