Florida woman given major jail sentence for illegally selling Microsoft product keys

Date:
Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:25:00 +0000

Description:
Florida woman paid Texas company around $20 for Windows 10 licenses before selling the product keys illegally.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get the TechRadar Newsletter Sign up for
breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Heidi Richards of Trinity Software Distribution fined $50k and sentenced to
22 months in prison Prosecutors wanted to get Richards to cough up $242,000
in proceeds Certificate of authenticity labels aren't meant to be sold separately A 52-year-old Florida resident has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine as a result of her ties to ecommerce company Trinity Software Distribution.

A court found the company, and Heidi Richards, guilty of trafficking
Microsoft certificate of authenticity (COA) labels, which contained the product keys that are required to activate Office software and Windows operating systems. The US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of
Florida noted Richards, "paid co-conspirators millions of dollars for thousands of genuine, standalone Microsoft COA labels at prices significantly lower than the retail price of the associated software." You may like US cybersecurity professionals plead guilty to Blackcat ransomware attacks Microsoft hits global virtual desktop cybercrime phishing platform - 'RedDVS' caused phishing chaos and resulted in millions of losses Microsoft is back in court in the UK over unfair cloud licensing claims Jailed for reselling Microsoft COA labels The indictment details how Richards purchased tens of thousands of genuine COA labels from a Texas-based supplier between 2018 and 2023 for well below the retail value, before reselling them in bulk to customers globally without the licensed software.

"COA labels are not to be sold separately from the license and hardware that they are intended to accompany, and they hold no independent commercial value," the US Attorney's Office wrote.

Richards was found to have wired $5,148,181.50 to the unnamed Texas company during the scheme's operation. Some examples include the purchase of 800 Windows 10 COA labels in July 2018 for $22,100 (under $28 each) and a further 10,000 Windows 10 Pro COA labels in December 2022 for $200,000 ($20 each).

Ultimately fined $50,000 and given a near-two-year sentence, prosecutors had sought to get Richards to pay $242,000, "which represents the proceeds obtained from the offenses." Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/florida-woman-given-major-jail-sentence-for-ille gally-selling-microsoft-product-keys


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