A Fremont couple under indictment for software fraud was ordered by a federal judge to turn over the more than $231,000 they are alleged to have gleaned from the scheme and stashed in Pakistan.
A U.S. District Court judge issued the order after a grand jury found Mirza Ali, 54, and Sameena Ali, 48, wired cash from a bank in Fremont to one in Karachi, Pakistan.
Federal prosecutors in April charged the couple with infiltrating Microsoft's school discount program and re-selling its software to pirates.
The couple's Fremont-based company, Samtech Research, applied to join the program in 1996. In 1997, Microsoft ejected Samtech from the program after auditing its operations, but the couple then allegedly purchased other companies to regain access. According to prosecutors, they fraudulently obtained software titles like Microsoft Office and SQL Server, had them shipped to Mail Boxes Etc. stores in Fremont and Newark, sold them off and laundered the proceeds through property in the name of their college-aged son and through Pakistani banks.
The Alis, who infamously failed to win City Council approval for a 16,000-square-foot mansion in Fremont in 1991, had already been ordered in April to turn over homes in Fremont and Pleasanton and at least $20 million in alleged piracy profits.
This more recent order to turn over the $231,000 is a result of the April grand jury finding and is aimed at a specific transaction uncovered in the probe.
The Alis each could face 40-year prison sentences, with even more time possible depending on a judge's sentencing decision.
Microsoft estimated the scheme cost the company more than $100 million in discounts.
The couple was snared along with 25 others in an FBI-led undercover operation against what the agency described as an international software ring. Federal and local authorities investigated the "loosely affiliated" group for two years, buying more than $5.5 million in software from them, before swooping in and arresting alleged members in an April takedown. Members of the alleged ring hailed from such Bay Area locales as Alameda, Milpitas, Oakland, San Jose and Union City and face charges that include fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and copyright infringement.
Ryan Tate is a general assignment business reporter. Reach him at rtate@cctimes.com.
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