A former Microsoft Corp. engineer has been found guilty of stealing $10 million in digital currency from the company.

Ukrainian national Volodymyr Kvashuk, a resident of Renton, Washington, was convicted on five separate counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering and seven other charges in relation to his theft of funds.

Kvashuk worked at Microsoft starting in 2016 before he was fired in June 2018, then arrested the next month. Kvashuk was employed to work on Microsoft’s online sales platform, where he used a Microsoft Store account meant for testing to gain access to online sales. That’s where he obtained “currency stored value” such as Microsoft gift cards and then resold them online.

Those accounts were sold for bitcoin and Kvashuk then used a “bitcoin mixing service” to try to mask the source of funds he later moved into his bank account. The theft took place over a seven-month period, during which Kvashuk initially stole small amounts of around $10,000 before escalating to thefts in the millions.

Microsoft first confronted Kvashuk in May 2018 and authorities launched an investigation at the same time that led to his arrest two months later.

“In addition to stealing from Microsoft, Volodymyr Kvashuk also stole from the government by concealing his fraudulent income and filing false tax returns,” IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner said in a statement. “Kvashuk’s grand scheme was thwarted by the hard-work of IRS-CI’s Cyber Crimes Unit. Criminals who think they can avoid detection by using cryptocurrency and laundering through mixers are put on notice…you will be caught and you will be held accountable.”

In his defense, Kvashuk claimed that he “did not intend to defraud Microsoft,” and that he was “working on a special project to benefit the company.” Given that he had used the funds to purchase a $1.6 million home and a $160,000 Tesla, the jury was not convinced, finding him guilty on all charges after five hours of deliberation. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 1. Kvashuk faces up to 20 years in prison.

Kvashuk is not the only former Microsoft employee to have been found guilty of theft in the last year. Former Microsoft Director of Sports Marketing Jeff Tran was sentenced to 28 months in prison in June for stealing $1.5 million from Microsoft using Super Bowl tickets and fake invoices.

Photo: Microsoft Sweden/Flickr