The district court of Winterthur is dealing with a major case of white-collar crime: a former sales manager at Microsoft Switzerland is said to have cheated the technology company out of several million.
The now 65-year-old Swiss was released in 2012. Until then, he worked as a sales manager, responsible for the business with software licenses for public schools. He indirectly sold licenses to municipalities, cities and cantons, which were then used by kindergartens, elementary schools and high schools.
trial ten years later
However, only now, more than 10 years later, does the court hearing begin, which is expected to last up to 9 days. The indictment against the former sales manager and an assistant is over 100 pages long.
The length of the proceedings and the appointment of up to nine days of negotiations illustrate the complexity of the case. In the indictment, for example, Microsoft’s multi-level sales system at the time is explained in detail.
Microsoft did not sell its software licenses directly to the schools, but through resellers. According to the indictment, the accused took advantage of this circumstance to make his own cash register in the background.
Public School Licenses
He is said to have created a network of companies that he controlled and from which he cashed in – although as an employee of Microsoft he would have been forbidden to do so. The damage is said to amount to over 4 million Swiss francs.
At the center of his company network was a company that at times handled around 90% of all sales of software licenses in the area of public schools. The public prosecutor accuses the man, who lives near Winterthur, of commercial fraud and has requested a prison sentence. She will only announce the exact length at the trial.
The penal code provides for up to 10 years in prison for commercial fraud. Also on trial is a 52-year-old Swiss man who is said to have helped the alleged main culprit through his work for various companies in the fraud. The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of being an accessory to commercial fraud. He too should be sentenced to imprisonment.
2023-06-06 07:49:56
#Exmanager #Microsoft #Switzerland #trial #Winterthur
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