Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore has announced the nation's first felony charges and arrest for sending spam. Using Virginia's new Anti-Spam law, a grand jury indicted Jeremy Jaynes (a.k.a., "Jeremy James" and "Gaven Stubberfield"), regarded as the eighth-worst spam distributor in the world.
Using the "Report Spam" button on the mailbox, AOL members provided thousands of complaints that were used by the Commonwealth of Virginia to help investigate and indict the defendant, according to the Attorney General's office.
The new law is considered the toughest in the nation and was used as the model for the criminal portion of the federal legislation that was recently passed by Congress.
Law enforcement authorities arrested Jaynes in Raleigh, North Carolina, and charged him with four felony counts of using fraudulent means to transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail, which may be prosecuted in Virginia if any part of the illegal transactions take place in any locality in the Commonwealth. (AOL's offices are located in Dulles, Virginia.)
"Gaven Stubberfield" is listed as the eighth-most prolific spammer by the Register of Known Spam Operations. If convicted, Jaynes could face up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines -- the four felony charges each carry punishment of one to five years in prison, a fine of up to $2,500, or both.
In 2002 and early 2003, AOL worked with industry leaders, state lawmakers, and Attorney General Kilgore's office to craft a new anti-spam state law that would levy strong criminal penalties on large-scale spammers who used tactics of fraud, falsification and deceit to send the most egregious and offensive junk e-mails to AOL members. After adoption of the law by the Virginia General Assembly, AOL hosted a ceremony at its corporate headquarters on April 29, where Governor Mark Warner signed the bill.
The criminal indictment comes as AOL continues to vigorously pursue civil litigation filed earlier this year against over a dozen individuals alleged to have spammed AOL members with almost one billion junk e-mails