SUPER FRAUD

Ex-Microsoft Marketing Director Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Steal $1.4 Million

Jeff Tran faces up to 20 years in prison.

A former Microsoft marketing director in charge of the company’s “promotional relationship” with the NFL has pleaded guilty to attempting to steal more than $1.5 million from the tech giant and sell company Super Bowl tickets for profit, according to a Justice Department press release. Jeff Tran, 45, allegedly stole blocks of Super Bowl and Super Bowl party tickets from Microsoft—which were supposed to go to company employees—and sold over 60 of them through a ticket broker. According to Tran’s plea agreement, he made over $200,000 from those sales. In addition, Tran allegedly initiated about $1.4 million in payments from Microsoft to his personal bank account and a company he owned—under the guise of fraudulent invoices related to the 2017 Super Bowl from Microsoft vendors. Vendors became suspicious of Tran and alerted the company of his conduct, prosecutors said. Tran allegedly asked vendors to lie about the invoices on his behalf, but was eventually confronted by Microsoft and ordered to give back some of the money. Tran is charged with one count of wire fraud, and was ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution to the company. He could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison at his next hearing, scheduled for May 10.