Microsoft employee steals Xbox gift cards worth US$10 million, buys a lakefront property and Tesla with them

It probably isn't unheard of that employees occasionally borrow one or two items from their offices and take them home for private use. But an employee managing to steal goods worth millions of US dollars, that is something you don't hear every day. According to a Bloomberg report, this is exactly what happened at Microsoft's Xbox division.

The aforementioned case took place in 2017, but it is just now garnering public attention. Four years ago, newly recruited junior software engineer Volodymyr Kvashuk was tasked with reviewing Microsoft's e-commerce infrastructure, particularly its payment processing. This is when Kvashuk stumbled upon a pretty blatant security flaw: Every time he simulated a purchase of an Xbox gift card for testing purposes, Microsoft's internal system would provide a valid, usable gift code. Instead of reporting the glitch, the Ukraine-born developer decided to use the exploit to his advantage.

Until his apprehension two years later, Kvashuk generated a total of 152,000 Xbox gift codes, worth a total of more than US$10 million. He reportedly used the sales proceeds of the gift codes to live a rather lavish life with the purchase of a new Tesla and a waterfront property on Lake Washington. Last November, he was sentenced to nine years in prison, and once he becomes free he will face deportation from the United States. It was a short, but joyful ride for the culprit in likely one of the most notable heists in Microsoft's history.

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