Husband and wife, Mirza Ali, 60, and Sameena Ali, 53, have been sentenced to five years in prison and to over $25 million in fines for their role in a Microsoft software reselling scheme run between 1997 and 2001. Two of the Alis associates were also convicted: Keith Griffen, 56, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and $20 million in fines while William Glushenko, 66, was given one year of probation and 100 hours of community service. The four purchased more than $29 million worth of software at Microsoft's academic-discount rates and then resold it to non-academic entities, making more than $5 million in profits.
Previous to this, the Alis had already been kicked out of Microsoft's Authorized Education Reseller program, but they "
formed new corporations ... to disguise their identity from Microsoft and re-enter the AER program," according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They laundered their profits by purchasing real estate in their son's name and by wiring more than $300,000 to Pakistan. The scam was exposed during the course of a two-year undercover investigation called "Operation Cyberstorm," which was conducted by the FBI and the U.S. IRS.
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