28-year-old Robert Soloway has long since been a major player in the e-mail spam business, having sent millions of unwanted mails around the world in order to help nurture his ill-gotten fortune.
No, not this kind of Spam. Credit: Luis Perez/Flickr.
However, knocked from his nefarious Seattle throne by U.S. authorities, the infamous online ‘Spam King’ pled guilty this past Friday to a host of related charges and is now at the mercy of the U.S. legal system, which could subsequently hand down a jail sentence of up to 26 years.
Appearing at a pre-trial hearing in Seattle, Washington, Soloway entered a guilty plea to various charges including those related to aggravated identity theft and money laundering.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that Soloway’s guilty plea has led to federal prosecutors dropping a number of the lesser charges, which leaves the deposed Spam King facing serious charges of non-electronic mail fraud, e-mail fraud and tax evasion.
The non-electronic mail fraud charge could deliver a jail term of up to 20 years, while the e-mail charge carries a maximum of five years, and the tax-related charge comes with a maximum one-year penalty.
Beyond possible time spent behind bars, Soloway’s fraudulent business practice could also see him slapped with cumulative fines of up to $625,000 USD.
According to federal prosecutors, Soloway’s business, Newport Internet Marketing, was built around defrauding customers who hired him to dispatch masses of commercial e-mail, or those who purchased his e-mail marketing software directly in order to deliver masses of their own mail.
In terms of payment for services rendered, Soloway reportedly received close to $500 USD in return for dispatching spam mail to 20 million addresses for a 15-day period, or for selling customers a total allocation of 80,000 e-mail addresses.
It is believed that Soloway amassed some $300,000 in 2005, which is the year he failed to submit his tax return.
U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman will deliver Soloway’s final sentencing on June 30 of this year.
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