Former Microsoft worker accused of $1 million theft

Published 11:27 pm Friday, December 7, 2007

SEATTLE — Federal prosecutors say a former program manager at Microsoft Corp. stole more than $1 million by submitting false expense reports.

Carolyn M. Gudmundson, 44, of Kirkland was arrested Thursday night after a grand jury in Seattle indicted her on 18 counts of wire and mail fraud.

From 2000 to 2004, Gudmundson was a program manager in charge of registering Internet domain names for Microsoft as well as the online travel agency Expedia Inc., which had recently been spun off from Microsoft. She was allowed to use her credit card to pay for the domain names, then file expense reports. The indictment says she billed the companies for domain names she never paid for, and in some cases she charged for domain names the companies already owned.

Gudmundson made her initial appearance Friday in U.S. District Court and was released pending trial. Her attorney, Jim Frush, said she intends to plead not guilty.

Frush described the allegations as trumped-up and said the amount of money in dispute is about half of what the government claimed.

“Many of the things alleged in the indictment were part of her duties,” Frush said.

He said Gudmundson worked for Microsoft from 1987 until she resigned in 2004, and that when confronted, she wrote the company a check for $30,000, expecting that would clear up the matter.