Two Cisco Systems accountants prosecuted for computer fraud, receive

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Nov 29, 2001 by Nora Jones

Two accountants at Cisco Systems' San Jose offices leveraged their computer skills to transfer $7.8 million worth of Cisco stock into their own brokerage accounts at Merrill Lynch between October 2000 and March 2001. This week, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte for the Northern District of California handed each a 34-month prison sentence plus restitution.

In separate plea agreements, both Goeffrey Osowski and Wilson Tang admitted to one count of computer fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1030(a)(4).

Although the government seized defendants' assets, the stock they liquidated combined with other personal property was nearly $3 million short of the full restitution amount.

The FBI investigation that led to their arrest resulted in a Grand Jury indictment of one count of conspiracy to commit computer and wire fraud, one count of computer fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.

The investigation revealed that as part of the get rich quick scheme, Osowski and Tang exceeded their authorized access to computer systems at Cisco to access stock option disbursals and to identify control numbers to track authorized stock option distributions. The two forged forms purporting to authorize disbursals, and on one occasion caused 97,750 shares of stock to be transferred, and later moved over 130,000 shares.