Spam enthusiast Sanford Wallace turned himself in to the FBI this week after being indicted on charges of spamming Facebook users with millions of bogus messages.
Wallace, 43, was indicted on July 6 but only turned himself in to Las Vegas authorities on Thursday. He was charged with multiple counts of fraud, as well as three counts of intentional damages to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt. He could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of $250,000.
The case dates back to 2009, when Facebook sued Wallace and two other spammers for phishing and spamming schemes that compromised many accounts. The social-networking site obtained a restraining order in February 2009 and a $711 million judgment in October, the second-largest in history for an action brought under the federal CAN-SPAM Act. The case was then referred to the U.S. Attorney's office for possible criminal charges, which resulted in last month's indictment.
According to the Justice Department, Wallace compromised the Facebook accounts of about 500,000 users and sent more than 27 million spam messages through the company's servers.
In 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel ordered Wallace not to access Facebook, but the indictment says Wallace violated that order by logging in to the site during an April 2009 Virgin Airlines flight from Las Vegas to New York. Earlier this year, Wallace also maintained a Facebook profile for a "David Sinful-Saturdays Fredericks" in January and February 2011.
Wallace appeared in federal court on Thursday afternoon and was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond. He was again ordered not to access sites like Facebook and MySpace. He is scheduled to appear in court on August 22.