Ex-Olympian Charged With Stealing Money

Former Olympic swimmer Jo Harshbarger has been charged with stealing money from Microsoft Corp. and from her mother’s Individual Retirement Account.

The 38-year-old Bellevue woman pleaded innocent this week in King County Superior Court to charges of theft and forgery.

Prosecutors say she has repaid the software company $25,000 with money from her mother’s IRA, but still owes nearly $2,500. She later repaid her mother.

Harshbarger was an operations manager at Microsoft. She was fired last April, prosecutors said.

The thefts occurred via a corporate credit card and through reimbursements for inappropriate or non-existent expenses, prosecutors alleged.

Harshbarger competed on the U.S. swim team in the 1972 Olympics in Munich.