Security

Spammer pleads guilty

FORMERLY PROLIFIC spammer Robert Alan Soloway pleaded guilty Friday in Seattle US District Court rather than face trial on dozens of criminal charges.

Federal investigators called him the "Spam King" for sending out tens of millions of unsolicited commercial emails with forged headers since 2003 using a botnet of zombied computers from his Newport Internet Marketing Corp.

(They seem to apply that same term with a boring consistency to every big-time spammer they catch. Why can't we have some variation, like a "Spam Prince" or "Spam Duke" -- maybe even a "Sultan of Spam" someday? But hoping for imagination and panache from government gumshoes might be asking too much.)

Soloway, 29, was arrested early last summer and charged with 40 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, email fraud, aggravated identity theft and failing to file taxes.

He agreed to plead guilty to one count each of mail fraud, wire fraud and failure to file a tax return. Prosecutors dropped the other charges against him.

Soloway admitted that he took in $309,000 from his spamming operation during 2005 alone. The feds have already seized at least four of his bank accounts. He agreed to submit to a lie-detector test about his other assets prior to sentencing.

Sylvie Barak adds:
As part of the plea bargain, King spam-a-lot has also reportedly agreed to tell prosecutors all about his finances whilst undergoing a polygraph test, although, according to the Seattle Times, he doesn't exactly have too many assets for them to seize. Among the items that the prosecution could consider for forfeiture are Soloway's $3,700 collection of sunglasses (24 pairs), $7,400 worth of shoes (27 pairs), and $14,200 worth of clothing. Sounds more like Imelda Markos than spam royalty. His sentencing date is June 20th.