Chowrangi

In a two-year undercover investigation called Operation Cyberstorm, the FBI and U.S. IRS unearthed a scam that has reportedly caused $60 million loss of sales to Microsoft.

The scam involved Mirza Ali, 60, and Sameena Ali, 53, the husband-and-wife owners of Samtech Research, who along with their colleagues Keith Griffen, 56, and William Glushenko, 66, purchased more than $29 million worth of software at Microsoft’s academic-discount rates and then resold it to nonacademic entities, making more than $5 million in profits.

The Alis were sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $25 million in fines to Microsoft for their role in a software reselling scheme run between 1997 and 2001. Griffen, a partner in some of the Alis’ corporations, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and $20 million in fines. Glushenko was given one year of probation and 100 hours of community service. They were convicted on Nov. 28, 2006, and had been awaiting sentencing.

Previous to this, the Alis had already been kicked out of Microsoft’s AER (Authorized Education Reseller) program, but they “formed new corporations … to disguise their identity from Microsoft and re-enter the AER program,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement, released Thursday.

They laundered their profits by purchasing real estate in their son’s name and by wiring more than $300,000 to Pakistan, the DOJ said.

More at Infoworld, ChannelRegister, US DOJ Press Release December 2006.

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