[mdlug] Marginally OT: Alan Ralsky, Ten Others, Indicted in International Illegal Spamming and Stock Fraud Scheme

[Aaron Kulkis]

Rich Clark <rrclark at rrclark.net> wrote:
> http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-03-2008/0004730341&EDATE=
> 
> WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A federal grand jury
> indictment was unsealed today in Detroit charging 11 persons, including
> Alan M. Ralsky, his son-in-law Scott K. Bradley and Judy M. Devenow of
> Michigan, and eight others, including a dual national of Canada and Hong
> Kong and individuals from Russia, California, and Arizona, in a
> wide-ranging international fraud scheme involving the illegal use of bulk
> commercial e-mailing, or "spamming."
> 
> The owner of the negatives of the photos of his house taken in 2002 is 
> enjoying a cold celebratory beverage.


I remember a few years ago, Ralsky complaining that he
was being "harassed."

Ralsky reminds me of one of the murder Tom Chaney in the
old movie True Grit, who after getting shot by a young girl
upset that he murdered her father, "Why do these things
always happen to me? first there's that senator, and now
I get shot by a child."


	--

Why does this whole thing NOT surprise me:

A federal grand jury alleges Ralsky, 62, headed an
international ring...

		--

More complete article here:
<http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080104/METRO/801040378>

Friday, January 4, 2008

'Spam King,' 10 others indicted

West Bloomfield man is among those who sent e-mail that illegally 
drove up stock prices, feds say.

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Alan M. Ralsky of West Bloomfield, who is known
as the "Spam King," has been indicted along with 10 other
defendants in what U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy described
Thursday as the largest criminal spam and Internet fraud
case in American history.

A federal grand jury alleges Ralsky, 62, headed an
international ring that used sophisticated software to
send out millions of spam e-mail messages a day. Many of
those messages were used to illegally pump up the prices
of penny stocks held by Ralsky and other defendants in
the case, the indictment unsealed Thursday alleges.

"Today's charges strike at the heart of the abuses of
some of the technology that criminal defendants have
been engaged in over the years," Murphy said at a news
conference.

Charges in the 41-count indictment include conspiracy,
electronic mail fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. The
latter two counts are 20-year felonies.

Ralsky had not been arrested and was believed to be
in Europe on Thursday. His Cleveland attorney, Philip
S. Kushner, said Ralsky will voluntarily surrender to
federal authorities in the next few days.

"We didn't know that an indictment was coming,"
Kushner said. "Mr. Ralsky intends to fight these
charges, which are brought under a new federal
statute that has not been interpreted by the courts."

Federal agents raided Ralsky's home and other
locations in September 2005, seizing large amounts
of computer equipment. At the time, Ralsky told
The Detroit News, "I'm not a spammer," but "a
commercial e-mailer." He also said he was out of
business as a result of the raids.

The 39-page indictment alleges illegal conduct
between 2004 and 2006.

According to the indictment, Ralsky sent messages
touting penny stocks he owned, coaxing investors
who received the spam messages into purchasing
shares. When the prices would go up, the
indictment alleges, he would sell the stocks at
a profit.

The federal CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act
took effect in 2004, making electronic mail
fraud a crime.

Signs of illegal spam include disguising the
sources and natures of the e-mails and using
techniques to evade spam filtering programs.

The illegal stock manipulation allegations make
the case more serious, Murphy said. It's alleged
Ralsky netted about $3 million in the summer of
2005 alone as a result of illegal spamming.

Two other Michigan residents are named in the
indictment and were expected to appear briefly
Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

They are Ralsky's son-in-law, Scott K. Bradley,
46, of West Bloomfield, and Judy M. Devenow, 55,
of Lansing.

Also charged are: John S. Brown, 47, of Poway, Calif.;
William C. Neil, 45, of Fresno, Calif.; Anki K. Neil,
36, of Fresno, Calif.; James E. Bragg, 39, of Queen
Creek, Ariz.; James E. Fite, 34, of Whittier, Calif.;
Peter Severa, age unknown, of Russia; How Wai John Hui,
49, of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Hong Kong,
China; and Francis A. Tribble, age unknown, of Los
Angeles, Calif.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, who is
in charge of the case, said the indictment was unsealed
sooner than planned after Hui arrived on a flight at
JFK Airport in New York Wednesday and was arrested.

Agents from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service,
and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service were part of
the investigation.

John Mozena of Grosse Pointe Woods, a co-founder of
the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail,
said he is not active in the group but was pleased
to hear about the indictment.

Mozena said the relatively new electronic mail fraud
law appears ineffective. "We get as much or more
spam as we ever did," Mozena said.

But more traditional laws such as wire fraud can be
used effectively to fight illegal spammers, he said.