SEC Sues Spamming Stock Promoter

Michael MacPhail, SEC Division of Enforcement writes: "SEC today filed an action against Mark E. Rice for carrying out a "pump-and-dump" stock manipulation involving the use of email spam. The SEC alleges spam emails contained misleading statements such as false claims that one of Rice's companies, Portalzone, had developed an advanced Internet search engine. The SEC contends that Rice violated the federal securities laws and seeks an injunction, disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and third-tier penalties against him. The full litigation release should be available at www.sec.gov shortly."

Government workers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading slashdot and submitting stories... Nice to see my taxes being spent wisely!

Anyway, this Rice dude is not going to be so badly hurt here. He'll keep the greater part of what he made through his scam, because the SEC doesn't have the balls to take away the entire booty.

As long as there is no substantial penalty for running this kind of lucrative scam, unscrupulous people will continue trying to skirt the system.

Re:That's 4! Keep em comming!

[Quizme2000]

After seeing that last article, I guess todays flavor of the day is SPAM. I hate getting SPAM too But it seems the editors are SPAMMING the Slashdot Readers with SPAM articles and anti-SPAMMING. How about a good old fashion PEEZ story or something that doesn't invole lawyers. I getting tired of reading about the fscking lawyers..lawyers and SPAM. And don't forget .NET man I hate .NET ads on /. Why can't we talk about getting good jobs, hacking the latest gadget or trying installing Linux on GameBoy, when was the last time we talked about one of those extremly overfunctioned graphing caculators (I still love my TI-92). Chirst you think this was CNET or YAHOO for crying out loud. I AM GEEK and I'M MAD AS HELL!

Merry Spam Day!

[J'raxis]

What is it, Spam Day on Slashdot?

Re:Merry Spam Day!

[Kris_J]

Since I'm currently getting around 1 spam per hour (on average) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I think that a little focus on spam is a good thing. I like some of the solutions posed and if I wasn't running a firewall with all my unused ports in stealth mode, I'd consider setting up a tarpit (not that a dial-up can help much on this point). Currently I'm spending about 20 minutes a day reporting spam via Spamcop so at least I feel I'm doing something. Not that I get nearly as many "thank you for reporting this to us" messages as I used to.

Re:Merry Spam Day!

[J'raxis]

True. It was just odd that several successive front page stories, and then this one, were spam-related. I guess every day on the Internet is Spam Day, now isnt it?

The Litigation Release

[gartogg]

Here it is [sec.gov], in case people wanted it...

I don't know what "disgorgement" is,

[The G]

legally speaking, but it sure sounds uncomfortable.
--G

Re:I don't know what "disgorgement" is,

[cthugha]

Disgorgement (aka an account of profits) is a kind of remedy that requires the defendant to give something to the plaintiff, but which goes beyond mere damages. In law, there are two basic ways in which a plaintiff can be compensated:

1. Restitution, where the court works out what the plaintiff lost or suffered by the defendant's wrongdoing, and makes a monetary award to try and neutralize that loss (i.e. to put the plaintiff in the position s/he would have been in had the wrong not taken place). This is basically always available at civil law. It can be quite limited in its usefulness, particularly where the plaintiff has lost a limb or suffered some other kind of irreparable harm.
2. Disgorgement, where the defendant is required to surrender the benefit s/he gained from committing the wrong. This extends beyond damages to requiring the defendant to, e.g., surrender title in specific property or an interest in a business, or whatever is necessary to satisfy the justice of the case. Disgorgement is only available in a limited set of circumstances.

But you're right, it usually is quite painful. The good thing is, you (as plaintiff) can select whichever method of relief will get you the most money or the greatest benefit. ;)

Wow - Using EXISTING Laws!

[R2.0]

So the Enron/AA debacle may put the tombstone on the "e-mail is different than snail mail" myth...

And the SEC is going after frauds using spam for the fraud, not the spam...

And a guy in AU is applying a 16th century English law that basically states "you can't mess with another persons stuff"

Gee, maybe we don't need new laws after all - just enforce the ones we have!

Re:Wow - Using EXISTING Laws!

[DeputySpade]

Hasn't the NRA been saying that for years?

And so what?

[fm6]

The editors seem to think that every news story with the keywords "crackdown" and "spam" is Slashdotworthy. Not so. If they were cracking down on the spam itself, that would affect us. But what these stories report is crackdowns on scam artists who happen to use spam. That has only the tiniest effect on the spam deluge. (Excuse the imagery!) That makes the stories of marginal relevence, at best.