Blogs

The sentencing date for Carolyn Gudmundson, the former Microsoft domain buyer who earlier this year pleaded guilty to stealing money from the company, has been delayed for a third time, to July 18.

Here's what is going on behind the scenes: The assistant U.S. attorney on the case and Gudmundson's lawyer both say they haven't yet been able to come to an agreement on the amount of restitution Gudmundson owes. The Jan. 18 plea agreement (PDF, 12 pages) sets a range of $400,000 to $1 million. Gudmundson's lawyer, C. James Frush, has said previously he believes the amount is toward the low end of that range.

However, Catherine Crisham, assistant U.S. attorney, said via phone today that the government believes it can prove the amount taken was more than $1 million, although the plea agreement would still put a cap on the restitution. At the same time, Crisham said she's hopeful that a resolution can be reached this week.

Background on the case: In the plea agreement, Gudmundson admitted to doctoring her expense reports for domain names that she registered with her corporate credit card. In addition, she told an outside domain-name acquisition company that a person named "G.M. Lossman" was owed money for transferring domain names to Microsoft. She asked for the checks to be sent to her, purportedly so that she could deliver them to Lossman, who turned out to be fictitious. In many cases, Microsoft already owned those domains, according to the plea agreement.

From the archives: Plea deal for ex-Microsoft domain manager.