14 DAY TRIAL // You would think that working at Microsoft is a position equivalent with a healthy level of financial comfort. And yet, a former Microsoft domain manager was caught with her hand in the company's multi-billion cookie jar. And despite the fact that Carolyn Gudmundson allegedly appropriated just a few crumbs, no more than $1 million, she was arrested and is now facing no less than 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Gudmundson, in her role at the Redmond company between 2000 and 2004, was managing and registering Microsoft's Internet domain names. She is being accused of stealing approximately $1 million from Microsoft and Expedia.
"Carolyn M. Gudmundson, 44, of Kirkland, Washington, was indicted yesterday by a grand jury in Seattle for eleven counts of Wire Fraud and seven counts of Mail Fraud for a scheme in which she fraudulently billed her employer and related entities for reimbursement for costs she had purportedly incurred in registering and maintaining Internet domain names for Microsoft and Expedia. Gudmundson fraudulently made more than $1 million with this scheme", reads an excerpt from a statement issued by the United States Attorney's Office.
While a Program Manager in Microsoft's MSN Division, Gudmundson used her position in order to squeeze a few extra dollars from the company. In this context, the U.S. Attorney's Office revealed that she had deployed three main tactics in order to defraud Microsoft. Gudmundson is reported to have submitted reimbursement requests to Microsoft that had been artificially inflated and did not reflect the true value of the transactions involving registration, transfer, renewal, acquisition and retiring of Internet domain names.
"Gudmundson [also] allegedly submitted invoices to Expedia for the registration of domain names that she had not paid for. Third, Gudmundson used an outside company that assists in the negotiation for the purchase of domain names from private parties. Gudmundson told an employee of that company that a fictitious individual had purchased domain names in his name on Microsoft's behalf and that she needed the employee to send a check to that individual to reimburse him for his costs. Gudmundson then directed the employee to send the checks to her, where she allegedly deposited them into a bank account that she controlled", it is added in the statement from the United States Attorney's Office.