A Detroit judge passed sentencing convicting “Godfather of Spam” Alan Ralsky of multiple prison-worthy crimes.
John Leyden from The Register reports: “Notorious spammer Alan Ralsky has been jailed for more than four years over his role in a masterminding a stock fraud spam campaign that made him an estimated $2.7m.
Ralsky, 64, from West Bloomfield, near Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced to 51 months while his son-in-law, Scott Bradley, 48, was imprisoned for 40 months over the same pump and dump stock fraud conspiracy involving thinly-traded stocks.”
Each man plead guilty to the CAN-SPAM Act, wire fraud, and money laundering. They were sentenced on Monday. Five other co-conspirators will face sentencing hearings today.
The conspirators used a botnet in their “pump and dump” stock fraud. They purchased thinly traded equities at rock bottom prices. Next they spammed unsuspecting “investment” victims about potential huge returns these stocks would provide. Once the stock price spiked the conspirators would dump their cheap stocks at greatly inflated prices to the “investment” victims.
“With today’s sentence of the self-proclaimed ‘Godfather of Spam,’ Alan Ralsky, and three others who played central roles in a complicated stock spam pump and dump scheme, the Court has made it clear that advancing fraud through abuse of the Internet will lead to several years in prison,” said US Attorney Terrence Berg for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Ralsky has a history of other spam frauds that have been documented by Spamhaus.
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