Alan Ralsky, a man believed at one time to be one of the world’s most prolific spammers, pleaded guilty to felony charges relating to a stock pump-and-dump scheme yesterday and faces up to 87 months in prison and a $1 million fine as a result, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Ralsky, 64, and his son-in-law, Scott K. Bradley, 38, pleaded guilty to, among other things, wire fraud, mail fraud and violating the Can Spam Act, the DOJ reported.
Bradley faces up to six and a half years in prison and a $1 million fine, the justice department reported.
Also copping pleas in the case were John S. Bown, 45, of Fresno, CA; William C. Neil, 46, also of Fresno; and James E. Fite, 36, of Culver City, CA, according to the DOJ.
Bown faces up to 63 months in prison and a $75,000 fine, Neil faces up to 37 months in prison and a $30,000 fine, and Fite faces up to two years in prison and a $30,000 fine.
The five men are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 29.
According to officials, from January 2004 through September 2005, Ralsky and others sent billions of spam e-mails in an effort to artificially inflate certain Chinese stocks and sell them at a profit. The defendants used various illegal techniques to maximize the amount of spam they sent, including falsifying headers and falsely registered domain names, the justice department said. The e-mails also made misrepresentations in their ad content, according to the DOJ.
Investigators estimated the defendants made up to $3 million in the summer of 2005 alone, according to an indictment of Ralsky and 10 others in January 2008.
“Alan Ralsky was at one time the world’s most notorious illegal spammer,” said U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg in a statement. “Today Ralsky, his son-in-law Scott Bradley, and three of their co-conspirators stand convicted for their roles in running an international spamming operation that sent billions of illegal e-mail advertisements to pump up Chinese penny stocks and then reap profits by causing trades in these same stocks while others bought at the inflated prices.”
Besides the four who pleaded guilty with Ralsky yesterday, others indicted with him in 2008 were Judy M. Devenow, 55, of Lansing, MI; Anki K. Neil, 36, of Fresno, CA; James E. Bragg, 39, of Queen Creek, AZ; Peter Severa of Russia; How Wai John Hui, 49, of Vancouver, Canada and Hong Kong; and Francis A. Tribble, of Los Angeles, according to the DOJ.
Devenow, Hui and Tribble have already pleaded guilty to their rolls in the alleged conspiracy, the DOJ said. The cases against Anki Neil, Bragg and Severa are pending, the justice department said.
Ralsky has been a target of anti-spam efforts for years.
Verizon Communications Inc. sued him in 2001, saying he shut down its networks with millions of e-mail solicitations. He settled in 2002 and promised not to spam its networks.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Ralsky’s and Bradley’s homes in 2005 and reportedly took all their computer equipment.
The justice department called this its biggest prosecution under Can Spam to date.
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