14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week we were reporting that Alan Soloway, better known as the Spam King, would be sentenced after having been charged with mail fraud, e-mail fraud, and tax evasion, and the honorable judge Marsha Pechman was expected to issue a sentence. Although two days have been put aside so that every witness could testify, that amount of time proved insufficient and Judge Pechman had to reschedule the hearings. Alan Soloway is due to appear in court again on the 22nd of July.
Emily Langlie, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, comments: "The government wanted to make sure the full extent of Mr. Soloway's criminal actions were explained. It's important to articulate how people were damaged by his activities."
The prosecution brought a large number of witnesses to the stand, in an effort to properly depict what impact Soloway's actions had. The witnesses ranged from victims of Soloway's spam to AOL experts. The Seattle prosecution wants Soloway to get a 9 year sentence for what he did, according to Langlie.
Aaron Kornblum is a senior attorney on the Internet Safety Research Enforcement Team from Microsoft, and according to him such cases "help to change the economics of spam by adding an additional cost, deterrent and consequence." E-criminals around the world should pay close attention to this case as they might be the next to face judgment in a court of law.
Judge Marsha Pechman stated that she would have to give the sentence considerable thought. There are few legal precedents in regard to spam cases, so handing out the appropriate sentence might prove to be troublesome. She compared spam to pollution, in that both are annoying to some and potentially dangerous to others. After the judge decides on how much incarceration time to hand out, she will also have to determine how much monetary restitution will be handed to each of Soloway's victims. The government has placed a seizure on all his assets, and is awaiting the court's decision.