Richard Gregg, 45, agreed to a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Seattle, where he admitted to ordering more than $13 million worth of software meant for internal use and selling it to pay off a mortgage and buy luxury cars.
Gregg, who worked at Microsoft until late 2002, had cooperated with prosecutors in their investigation, a fact that Judge John Coughenour said he took into consideration at the sentencing.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft cracked down on criminal theft in late 2003 and put in more stringent policies after similar incidents involving employees selling Microsoft's high-end software for personal gain were discovered.
Microsoft hired investigators and made changes to its internal ordering system in order to prevent future incidents. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
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