Jennifer Clason is only the third person ever convicted of criminal charges related to illegal bulk emails. She pleaded guilty to two spamming counts and one conspiracy count and agreed to forfeit the money she was paid to send the emails.
Clason’s partners in crime, Jeffrey Kilbride of Venice, Calif., and James Schaffer of Paradise Valley, Ariz., face a full trial scheduled to begin June 6.
According to the plea agreement, Clason did most of the dirty work for the trio, creating and sending emails advertising adult sites to millions of AOL members under Schaffer’s direction. The emails resulted in more than 600,000 complaints, prompting Justice to launch an investigation.
The original indictment charged all three defendants with felony offenses for interstate transmission of hardcore pornographic images that Justice claimed met the Supreme Court’s standards for obscenity.
Schaffer also was charged separately with 2257 violations for not having the appropriate performer records on the site, which he operated through overseas companies called The Compliance Company and Ganymede Marketing. According to the indictment, he and Kilbride also used overseas banks to launder and hide money from the IRS.
Clason apparently escaped the more serious charges in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors in the case against Schaffer and Kilbride.
Two other accomplices have already pleaded guilty in relation to the operation.
Clason will be sentenced on June 5, with a potential punishment of up to five years on each guilty plea.
