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MSNBC.com
Spam Senders Convicted in First Felony Case
November 3, 2004
-- Leesburg, Va. - A brother and sister who sent junk e-mail
to millions of America Online customers were convicted Wednesday
in the nation's first felony prosecution of Internet spam
distributors.
Jurors recommended
that Jeremy Jaynes be sentenced to nine years in prison and
fined Jessica DeGroot $7,500 after convicting them of three
counts each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable
routing information.
A third defendant,
Richard Rutkowski, 30, was acquitted of similar charges.
Sentencing was set
for February. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne will have the
option of reducing the jury's sentence or leaving it intact.
Horne was still considering
a motion from defense attorneys to set aside the verdict and
will hear arguments on it at a later date. He had said previously
that he had reservations about allowing the case against DeGroot
and Rutkowski to go to a jury.
Virginia, where AOL
is based, prosecuted the case under a law that took effect
last year barring people from sending bulk e-mail that is
unsolicited and masks its origin.
Prosecutors said Jaynes,
30, and DeGroot, 28, who live in the Raleigh, N.C., area,
used the Internet to peddle sham products and services such
as a “FedEx refund processor.”
The refund processor
supposedly allowed people to earn $75 an hour for working
from home. In one month alone, Jaynes received 10,000 credit
card orders, each for $39.95, for the processor.
“This is a snake oil
salesman in a new format,” said state prosecutor Samuel E.
Fishel IV.
Prosecutors had asked
the jury to impose a maximum prison sentence of 15 years for
Jaynes and to consider some jail time for his sister.
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