14 DAY TRIAL // Scott Laney, originally of Battle Ground, Vancouver, and now of Ogden, Utah, will turn 40 before being released from prison. The 35 year old man was convicted to five years of imprisonment for his involvement with trafficking Microsoft software with fraudulent licenses.
Several counts were brought against Laney among which money-laundering and counterfeiting conspiracy. Laney pleaded guilty to all the charges. Tobias Grace, Laney's Vancouver partner, has his sentence scheduled for Jan. 19.
Laney & Co managed to sell in excess of $12.4 million worth of counterfeit Microsoft software products. But the total prejudice is as high as $20 million, although Symantec - whose programs were also trafficked - made no claims for restitution.
In addition to the 5 year prison sentence, Laney will additionally have to pay a financial penalty of $9.4 million. Laney and Grace have obtained software at discounted prices and falsified the labels, documents and licenses in order to resell the products at their full value. The software with cut rates was meant for computer manufacturers and academic institutions.
The prosecutors also revealed that, in some cases, the duo received help from Microsoft's own employees that had exploited the Redmond Company's internal ordering system, following which they too were also convicted and sentenced.