25-year-old Ukrainian faces up to 20 years in prison

The Ukrainian, who previously worked at Microsoft, was found guilty of 18 federal crimes related toa complex scheme to embezzle $10 million.

25-year-old Volodymyr Kvaschuk worked at Microsoft as a software engineer from August 2016 to June 2018.He used his position to steal gift cards and then resell them online. 

In order to obfuscate the possible investigation, Kvaschuk used bitcoin mixers and then withdrew the funds to his bank account. 

In seventeen months, Kvaschuk's bank account received about $2.8 million.He spent the illegally obtained funds on luxury goods - a Tesla car and a house on the shore of the lake worth $ 1.7 million.

In addition, the Ukrainian faked tax forms,indicating that he received bitcoins as gifts from family members. US Assistant Attorney Siddhart Velamur said in court that Kvashchuk’s “greedy criminal scheme” is built on “several levels of lies.”

The programmer was charged in five casesfraud, six cases of money laundering, two cases of identity theft, two cases of false tax returns, as well as mail fraud and illegal access to the device.

For these crimes, Kvaschuk faces up to 20 years in prison. 

IRS-CI Special Agent Ryan L. Corner said:

Criminals who think they can cover their tracks with cryptocurrencies and mixers [...] will catch you and hold you accountable.