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Spammer Bust Could Lower Junk Email
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-05-31
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Robert Alan Soloway has been a fixture on the Spamhaus list of prolific spammers, but now he'll be known as "defendant."
 | | Spammer Bust Could Lower Junk Email |  |
Soloway first appeared on the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operators (ROKSO) in 2003. His domains have been part of Spamhaus blacklists since 2001.
He gets to answer for his persistent violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, his failure to pay multi-million dollar judgments to Microsoft and to an Oklahoma-based ISP who sued him for spamming, and his disdain for injunctions against his spamming activities.
"Soloway never paid these awards, claiming that he lived off of the proceeds of a family trust and was therefore 'judgement-proof,'" Spamhaus said in their report of his indictment in Seattle. Spamhaus detailed the allegations and possible repercussions against Soloway:
Soloway was arrested and brought before the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington, where he was indicted on multiple counts of money laundering, wire fraud, mail fraud, and identity theft by a federal grand jury.
If convicted of all charges, he could theoretically face up to 65 years in prison. Although his custodial sentence if convicted is likely to be substantially less than 65 years, he nonetheless faces a significant stay in the U.S. federal penitentiary system.
The indictment followed a years-long joint investigation by the Washington State Attorney General's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Internal Revenue Service Department of Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Spamhaus said.
"He's a huge problem for our customers," Tim Cranton, a Microsoft lawyer, said in an AP report. "This is a very good day."
Spamhaus also said Soloway's records in ROKSO show details of his spamming operation. They accused Soloway of employing virus writers to compromise machines and create a zombie network to facilitate his spamming.
Though the authorities appear to have a strong case against Soloway, judging by the handing down of the indictment, Spamhaus cautioned that there is not extensive case law yet in relation to CAN-SPAM. That makes the prosecution's need to proceed carefully an urgent one.
If they secure Soloway's conviction, that should help with the case law for CAN-SPAM.
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Tags: Robert Soloway, Spamhaus, Spam
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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