Ex-Microsoft executive sentenced to 22 months in prison for $1m fraud

Sina Technology News, July 20th, Beijing Time - According to foreign media reports, Carolyn Gudmundson, a former project manager of Microsoft's MSN department, was sentenced to 22 months in prison for defrauding nearly one million US dollars.

Gudmundson is 46 years old and was a former project manager of Microsoft's MSN department. In January this year, she admitted that between 2000 and 2004, she took advantage of her position to commit multiple frauds. On Friday, she was sentenced to 22 months in prison and will be placed under house arrest for three months after serving her sentence. Additionally, she must return $923,600 in ill-gotten gains from the fraud.

According to court documents, Gudmundson used her American Express card to pay for domain name registration fees and then issued fictitious high-value invoices. She also submitted invoices for domain name registrations that had already been paid by Expedia Online Travel Agency for reimbursement at Microsoft.

Furthermore, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, in another fraud case, she forged vouchers to Microsoft contractor Marksman Domain Registration Company, falsely claiming that a Microsoft employee named Lossman had prepaid several domain transfer fees on behalf of the company, and requested that Marksman send a check to Lossman. However, the address for delivery was actually Gudmundson's mother's residence. Later, Gudmundson secretly cashed the check.

In sentencing this case, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez believed that it would serve as a warning. A press release from the Department of Justice quoted him as saying: "Corporate executives with similar conditions should understand that society will take such criminal behavior seriously."

Gudmundson joined Microsoft in 1987 and retired in 2004, working there for 17 years. In fact, this is not the first time Gudmundson has drawn media "attention." As early as December 1999, Microsoft's Passport.com website service was interrupted due to failure to renew its domain name in time, causing 60 million Hotmail users to be unable to log into their email services, and Gudmundson was the responsible party involved. (By Li Ming)