Finn Contini, 36, a former group assistant with the company, was
one of four ex-employees charged in November in connection with a
conspiracy to obtain the software and then sell it for personal
profit.
Contini pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of conspiracy to
commit mail fraud and money laundering, reports the Seattle Times.
He will be sentenced on 3rd June.
According to the report, Contini made $2.3 million out of the
scam, but has now forfeited over $1.7 million, in part made up of
properties in Oregon and Washington.
Two other conspirators, Alyson Clark, 38, and Robert Howdeshell,
40, are due in court today.
Microsoft has suffered similar thefts in the past. In June 2003
a former Project Coordinator for Windows Development, Richard
Gregg, was charged with mail and computer fraud after allegedly
obtaining software with a retail value of $17 million through the
company's staff software purchasing system and selling it at a
profit.
In December 2002, former Microsoft manager Daniel Feussner, 32,
was arrested and accused of stealing $9 million worth of Microsoft
software through the same internal ordering system. Mr Feussner
swallowed anti-freeze shortly afterwards, and died in hospital.
