Microsoft News Tracker

Here’s something you don’t see every day - Todd Bishop at The Seattle PI reports that “Carolyn Gudmundson, who was responsible for managing and registering Microsoft’s Internet domain names between 2000 and 2004, has been indicted on allegations of stealing more than $1 million from Microsoft and Expedia, according to court papers and a statement released today by the U.S. Attorney in Seattle.”

There are more details from the indictment by following the link, but one of the techniques allegedly used was to register domain names on a credit card and then submit doctored receipts for an inflated reimbursement. I’d have to say that $1 million is a heck of a lot for domain names charged on a credit card, but apparently some of the other alleged schemes involved acquisition of domain names from fictitious third parties which seems more plausible. Arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 13.

Update: Robert McMillan has more details at InfoWorld:

In another alleged scam, she is charged with convincing a Microsoft contractor, Marksmen Inc., to send checks to her attention at Microsoft, claiming they were being used to repay a Microsoft employee, G.M. Lossman, for transferring domain names into Microsoft’s control. Those checks were cashed in Gudmundson’s mother’s account, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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This is not her first time in the spotlight. In December 1999 Gudmundson was listed as the administrative contact responsible for Microsoft’s Passport.com domain when the service stopped working, knocking 60 million Hotmail users offline. The cause? Someone forgot to renew the domain name registration.