The Massachusetts State Attorney has decided to fine a group of spammers with $37 million. The groups' members, organized in two centers, one in Boston, and the other in Russia, also owned and operated several pornographic sites and others which sold counterfeit drugs and pirated software.

The lawsuit against the group led by the Russian citizen Leo Kuvayev, started this spring using information provided by Microsoft. After a court order, the sites were shut down. All sites were promoted through spam. The companies behind the two groups, 2K Services and Ecash Pay, were also closed down.

Leo Kuvayev, considered as one of the 200 most important spammers in the world, and six other members were not present at the trial, because they were nowhere to be found.

The American authorities suspect that Kuvayev and another member of the group, Vladislav Khokholkov, are hiding in Russia, but they have no information on the rest of the members.

The assistant attorney general, Scott Schafer, said that the trial's sentence is an example for all spam generators.


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