Security News > 2022 > June > Avaya sysadmin indicted for illegally generating, selling VoIP licenses
Three defendants who allegedly sold over $88 million worth of software licenses belonging to Avaya Holdings Corporation have been charged in Oklahoma, U.S., facing 14 counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
The defendants are accused of stealing software licenses from ADI and selling them to thousands of companies worldwide that used them to unlock features of "Avaya IP Office" telephone systems.
The three indicted individuals are Raymond Bradly Pearce, 46, of Tuttle, Oklahoma, a former Avaya employee Dusti O. Pearce, 44, of Tuttle, Oklahoma, his wife, and Jason M. Hines, 42, of Caldwell, New Jersey, a former Avaya authorized reseller.
Avaya offered tiered licenses for IP Office, with premium ones unlocking features such as voicemail, unlimited telephones, etc.
According to the U.S. DoJ announcement, Brad Pearce, a customer service employee at Avaya, abused his administrator privileges to generate ADI software license keys and sell them to Hines, an authorized Avaya reseller.
Pearce also allegedly hijacked accounts of other Avaya admins to generate licenses through them to avoid raising suspicions due to unusually high volumes of key generation linked to his account.