Say hello to your little jail cell. Last Friday, Robert
Soloway, 28, of Seattle, Washington, pleaded guilty to a variety of fraud
charges and failure to file a tax return in 2005. The one-time “king of
spam” was listed as the eighth-largest spammer in the world, according to
Spamhaus, which tracks these offenders.
Soloway has been on the losing end for quite a while now. Microsoft
sued him in December 2003, for using a Hotmail address for a number of
spam-related offenses, including advertisements for spamming software, as well
as a global defamation campaign targeting Microsoft. Microsoft won a $7.8 million judgment in 2005.
Then in 2005, an Oklahoma ISP sued him for violating federal
CAN-SPAM laws. Soloway fired his lawyer and eventually stopped showing up in
court, resulting in a $10 million summary judgment for the ISP.
Not that anyone will collect. His lawyer tells the
Seattle Times he’s “essentially broke.” With a maximum sentence of 26
years hanging over his head, he won’t be working off his debts any time soon,
either.