AOL previously won a monetary judgment against CN Productions,
formerly of Rockford, Illinois, in a 1999 lawsuit. At the
conclusion of that original suit, AOL also obtained an injunction
permanently barring the company and its president, Jay Nelson, from
sending any spam to AOL members.
Two years later, AOL asked a Virginia court to hold the company
and its president in contempt, alleging they had violated the
court's injunction by continuing to send spam to its members.
According to AOL's complaint, the defendants continued for more
than a year after the injunction to "transmit hundreds of millions
of junk email messages advertising adult web sites" as "part of a
complex conspiracy designed to knowingly violate" the court's
injunction.
In addition to naming the original parties in its contempt
action, AOL also named as co-conspirators more than a dozen other
individuals, who, according to AOL's complaint, had conspired with
Jay Nelson.
In its complaint, AOL alleged that CN Productions and its
conspirators had transmitted over 1 billion junk e-mail messages to
AOL and its members; had accounted for 25% of all junk e-mail
complaints about adult web sites that AOL received over a two year
period; had generated as much as $8 million in illegal gains; and
had attempted to conceal their illegal scheme from the courts and
AOL through perjury, obstruction of justice, and elaborate,
illicit, offshore financial transactions designed to purposefully
circumvent US laws and AOL's anti-spam filters.
AOL said the case is the first time that statutory damages have
been awarded under an amended Virginia anti-spam statute. That law
provides that spammers can be liable for $25,000 for each day they
send spam. AOL has brought twenty anti-spam lawsuits against over
100 companies and individuals, but this represents its biggest
financial award.
