Details of the empire of a 'Spam King'
He got $1 million over 4 years, investigators say
Robert Soloway, accused of being the "Spam King," made more than $1 million over four years by sending millions of pieces of spam for a business he said he started when he was 16, federal investigators said.
Newly released court documents show that investigators believe that Soloway, 27, who has long been reviled by international anti-spam groups, sent more than 90 million e-mails in three months, through just two of the servers he used.
With three other servers connected to him, investigators believe he sent 120 million e-mails to nearly 80,000 addresses. He used a controversial software called Dark Mailer, which investigators say lets users tap into a network of zombie proxy computers to send bulk e-mails with near-total anonymity.
Those details arise from affidavits for search warrants executed Wednesday, when Soloway was arrested on a 35-count federal indictment accusing him of fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
From Soloway's downtown Seattle penthouse apartment and a public storage unit in Bellevue, investigators seized computers and related equipment, reams of documents, DVDs, CDs, two iPods, a TV and a digital camera, records show.
They also took 24 pairs of sunglasses, 27 pairs of shoes, many jackets and coats and an Armani watch.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office say Soloway illegally spammed people to advertise his spamming services, which he called "broadcast e-mail."
To do so, he used Web domains and e-mail addresses of other people to hide his identity. In those cases, unsuspecting victims often ended up on blacklists of accused spammers.
The search-warrant documents detail the pain of Soloway's alleged victims, who said the spam often crippled their e-mail addresses and domains.
The owner of a Web-hosting business in Minnesota told investigators that he tried to contact Soloway a hundred times to stop the waves of spam he and his clients were receiving, only to receive more spam.
The owner, identified only by his initials, said one of his domains allegedly hijacked by Soloway collected nearly 175,000 bounce-back e-mails, 99 percent of which contained links to Soloway's business.
The Santa Barbara, Calif., Department of Social Services reported spending $1,000 a week to rid the office of Soloway's spam, which they were receiving from their own domain.
The affidavits also revealed details about Soloway's financial activities. They reported that spamming was his primary source of income and that he made $1.6 million from 2003 through 2006. He deposited that money into 16 different accounts, IRS investigator Silvia Reyes said.
Some of that income came from spamming software he sold for $149 apiece. In that time period, investigators found that he made 2,700 shipments on FedEx, and that in 2003, he made 270 payments to people totaling $61,000, indicating that he had subcontractors.
The documents also showed that Soloway testified in a 2005 deposition that he started his business, Newport Internet Marketing, in 1996, when he was about 16, and that it is the only job he's ever had.
Reyes, in her affidavit, said that in 2006, Soloway paid a year's rent of $35,000 at the swanky Harbor Steps through an Internet payment site and different credit cards. He also varied the amounts he paid.
Reyes said the way Soloway paid rent was "consistent with individuals trying to conceal or disguise the source or nature of their income."
