TAMPA, Florida — A 52-year-old woman from Brandon has been sentenced to 22 months in federal prison for conspiring to traffic in illicit Microsoft certificate of authenticity (COA) labels.
Heidi Richards, doing business as Trinity Software Distribution, was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, according to U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe. Court documents and trial evidence revealed that Richards paid co-conspirators millions for thousands of genuine Microsoft COA labels at prices significantly lower than the retail price of the associated software. Richards and her employees extracted product key codes from the labels and sold them in bulk to customers.
Federal law prohibits the trafficking of standalone COA labels separate from the software programs they are intended to accompany. COA labels authenticate Microsoft software, assist customers in identifying genuine software, and include security features to deter counterfeit duplication. They are not to be sold separately from the license and hardware they accompany and hold no independent commercial value…