By John Leyden for The
Register
This article has been reproduced from The Register, with
permission.
Smith was nabbed after stepping off a flight from the Dominican
Republic, where he had been operating since May after a federal
judge shut down his Minneapolis-based spam businesses, Burnsville
Internet and Xpress Pharmacy Direct, and ordered him to stop
marketing penis pills and other assorted tat. Smith allegedly sent
more than one billion spam emails either to AOL email addresses or
through AOL email accounts. The FBI claims Smith, 25, has made
approximately $18m this year from his lucrative spam
businesses.
On 10 May, federal authorities raided Xpress Pharmacy and
Smith's home, seizing his passport and $4.2m in assets, including a
$1.1m house and luxury vehicles worth $1.8m. At the same time the
FBI closed down his 85-employee company. Smith was charged with
selling prescription drugs without a license but four days after
appearing in a federal court he fled to the Dominican Republic,
allegedly using a false passport. His wife Anita, his Minnesota
girlfriend and several others brought him thousands of dollars in
cash. Court documents allege that by June, Smith had set up new
websites under false names and was back selling drugs without
prescriptions online and through a new call centre he had set up in
the Dominican Republic.
© The Register
2005
