Originally Posted by New York Times
Two Are Sentenced to 5 Years in Pornographic Spam Case
PHOENIX, Oct. 13 (AP) ? Two men who sent millions of unsolicited pornographic e-mail messages have been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison as part of a prosecution under a federal antispam law, officials from the Department of Justice said Friday.
The men, Jeffrey A. Kilbride of Venice, Calif., and James R. Schaffer of Paradise Valley, Ariz., bought lists of e-mail addresses and sent the owners of those addresses links to pornographic Web sites, prosecutors said.
They were convicted in June of charges including conspiracy, money laundering, fraud and transportation of obscene materials after a three-week trial and were sentenced by a federal judge in Phoenix this week.
A defense lawyer, Steven Goldsobel, declined to comment Friday afternoon.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Kilbride and Mr. Schaffer, both 41, started their spamming business four years ago, earning more than $2 million in commissions.
They sent millions of unsolicited e-mail messages, prosecutors said. In nine months in 2004, Mr. Kilbride, Mr. Schaffer and an associate transmitted more than 600,000 spam messages advertising pornographic Web sites, according to court documents.
According to the indictment, Mr. Kilbride and Mr. Schaffer were paid commissions based on the number of people who accessed the Web sites using the spam messages.
Prosecutors said that after Congress in 2003 passed a law known as the Can-Spam Act cracking down on unsolicited pornographic e-mail messages, Mr. Kilbride and Mr. Schaffer tried to make it seem as if they were sending messages from abroad by logging in to servers in Amsterdam. But those messages originated from Phoenix, prosecutors said.
The two men were also ordered to forfeit $1.3 million.
Three other men charged in the case pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Kilbride and Mr. Schaffer.
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