Missouri is reeling from the effects of a massive software piracy scheme that has cost the state’s economy over $100 million. Rex Yang Jr., 37, of Seattle, pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme, which involved selling millions of dollars’ worth of Microsoft Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc. software product key codes through a charitable organization and several online businesses.
Yang, who owned and operated Digisoft LLC and Premiere Software Inc., is the sixth and final defendant to plead guilty in separate, but related, cases in this stage of an ongoing criminal investigation that originated with a Kansas City, Missouri, company. Many of these defendants and their related entities had been sued civilly for willful trademark and copyright infringement by Microsoft and other software developers.
The multimillion-dollar scheme, which involved co-conspirators operating overseas in the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, and Germany, and across the United States, illegally sold millions of dollars of Microsoft Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc. software product key codes. Product key codes are used to obtain full access to unlocked, licensed versions of various copyrighted software programs.
Yang pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Greg Kays of the Western District of Missouri on December 16, 2015, to a federal information that charges him with participating in a criminal conspiracy from January 1, 2009 to December 10, 2014.
The investigation that began in Kansas City, Mo., uncovered one of the largest software piracy schemes ever prosecuted by the U.S. government, with tentacles reaching into cities across the United States and overseas.
Yang faces sentencing later this year. He is the sixth defendant to plead guilty in the case, which is part of an ongoing investigation. Investigators seized more than $20.6 million in assets, including $10,188,777 seized from bank and investment accounts, 10 luxury automobiles, and 27 parcels of real estate with a total market valuation of $9,739,399.
The scheme has cost the state’s economy over $100 million, and investigators estimate that the conspirators reaped about Related Federal Cases
