From Spam Daily News
Jennifer R. Clason, 33, of Raymond, N.H., pleaded guilty to two
spamming counts under the CAN-SPAM Act and one count of criminal
conspiracy. She agreed to forfeit money obtained in the commission of
these crimes and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for
each of the spamming and criminal conspiracy offenses. Sentencing is
scheduled for June 5, 2006 before U.S. District Court Judge Roger
G. Strand.
According to the plea agreement, Clason conspired with two individuals
in the transmission of numerous spam e-mails containing graphic
pornographic images: Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 39, of Venice, California,
and James R. Schaffer, 39, of Paradise Valley, Ariz. The plea
agreement states that Clason created and transmitted the spam e-mails
on behalf of Kilbride and Schaffer, at the direction of Schaffer.
On Aug. 25, 2005, a nine-count indictment was returned against
Kilbride, Schaffer, and Clason by a federal grand jury in Phoenix,
charging all three defendants with two counts of fraud and related
activity in connection with electronic mail under the CAN-SPAM Act and
one count of criminal conspiracy.
The indictment also charged Kilbride and Schaffer with two counts of
interstate transportation of obscene material using an interactive
computer service, two counts of interstate transportation of obscene
material for the purpose of sale or distribution, and one count of
money laundering. Schaffer was also charged with one count of
operating three pornographic Internet websites without including
required statements describing the location of identification and
other records for the performers portrayed in the Web sites, as is
required by federal law.
The trial of Kilbride and Schaffer is scheduled for June 6, 2006.
According to the indictment, Clason, Kilbride, and Schaffer conspired
to engage in the business of sending spam e-mails for their own
personal gain, benefit, profit and advantage. America Online,
Inc. received more than 600,000 complaints between Jan. 30, 2004 and
June 9, 2004 from its users regarding spam e-mails that had allegedly
been sent by the defendants' spamming operation.
The indictment further alleged that the spam e-mails sent by the
defendants advertised pornographic Internet Web sites in order to earn
commissions for directing Internet traffic to these Web sites. It is
alleged that graphic pornographic images were embedded in each of the
defendants' e-mails. Four counts of the indictment charged felony
obscenity offenses for such transmission of hard-core pornographic
images of adults engaged in explicit sexual conduct, which meet the
Supreme Court's test for adult obscenity.
According to the indictment, the spam e-mails were sent in a manner
that would impair the ability of recipients, Internet service
providers processing the e-mails on behalf of recipients, and law
enforcement agencies to identify, locate or respond to the
senders. The indictment further alleged that Kilbride and Schaffer
also created and utilized overseas companies named The Compliance
Company and Ganymede Marketing to conceal and disguise their
activities. According to the indictment, Kilbride and Schaffer also
utilized overseas bank accounts in Mauritius and the Isle of Man (a
British Crown dependency) for the purpose of laundering and
distributing the proceeds of the spamming operation.
Two other individuals, Andrew D. Ellifson, 31, of Scottsdale, Ariz.,
and Kirk F. Rogers, 43, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., have already
pleaded guilty to charges under the CAN-SPAM Act related to this
spamming operation. Ellifson and Rogers are scheduled to be sentenced
on June 5, 2006 in Phoenix.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney William A. Hall, Jr.,
of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of Criminal
Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., and
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John J. Tuchi and John R. Lopez, IV, of the
District of Arizona. It was investigated by the Phoenix Field Office
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CEOS's High Tech
Investigative Unit.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess I was wrong; you _can_ make
thousands of dollars per month working at home on your computer; all
you need to do is run a Ponzi Scheme in connection with pornographic
spam. Obviously I am in the wrong line of work here, obviously the
Internet can be used for good financial gain. PAT]
Spam Daily News (spam@telecom-digest.org)