Slashdot Mirror
30 Years For Online Pharmacy Spammer
jotter507 writes "So, you get arrested for running an illegal online pharmacy and the judge orders you to stop selling medication over the Internet. Don't sit around and do nothing before the trial! Run off to the Dominican Republic on a false passport, withdraw money from an account ordered frozen, and start up another online 'pharmacy.' It didn't end well for 27-year old Christopher William Smith, also known as 'Rizler.' The world-reviled spammer and Internet drug dispenser received a 30-year sentence from a federal judge on Wednesday."
If this guy's getting 30 years, then whoever's behind the "United States National Medical Association" deserves the death penalty. I've never seen so much spam for one target site as I have for US-NMA, and what puzzles me is that the spam continues even though the domain has been parked at an error page for at least a week now. It's almost as if they no longer care about selling fake pills, they just want to annoy the hell out of everyone...
Oh well, kudos to those involved for putting another spammer away. Keep up the good work.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
I would guess that a large part of that 30 years is due to his behaviour after being charged, breaking court orders often carries a greater sentence than the original crime IIRC.
It seems the spammer did everything in his power to maximize his jail sentence. Not only did he defy the judge at every opportunity, but he also threatened to kill a witness's children if she testified. He probably could have gotten away with serious fines if he had only cooperated, but instead he's probably going to lose not just his 10+ Automobiles, but also as many of his millions of dollars as the government can find.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
According to the article, he was also accused of illegal drug distribution and threatened the lives of the children of one his partners in crime, even trying to hire a hitman. At least in Ohio, that's a long way from the American dream..
Bite my shiny metal ass.
He fled the country, was laundering money, and (most egregiously) was trying to hire a hitman to kill one of the children of a witness against him.
Not only did he flee the country, but he fled the country to setup shop outside of US jurisdiction to have the money keep rolling in. Why he ever came back at that point I'll never know. I guess the lure of his $1.5 million home and numerous fancy cars in Prior Lake, MN was too much for him.
I don't think his sentence was excessive in the least. What I do think is a joke is the leniency that was shown to all of his employees. Minus the call center operator, the rest of them were just as fucking guilty. Just because they had a conscience once they were busted shouldn't allow them to get off with slaps on the wrists and promises by the judge to write future recommendation letters if they have problems gaining employment with a conviction.
It figures. I ran out of mod points yesterday so instead, I'll respond to the troll.
It's not about the government telling someone what business they can or cannot run, it's about this person selling pills which are claimed to be the real thing. In other words, he was selling placebos and not telling people these weren't the real thing.
Further, Congress has delegated authority to regulate medicinces to the FDA since medicines are not state specific. You can find the same bottle of Advil in Georgia as you can in Kansas. The FDA has stated that if it's a medicine, it must undergo rigorous testing to prove its relative safety.
This guy was claiming he had real drugs which he could deliver on the cheap. Not only was he violating FDA guidelines, he was perpetrating fraud.
So tell me, what country do you live in that allows someone to perpetrate fraud and not get penalized?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Sentencing guidelines. The PROSECUTOR not the JUDGE makes the ultimate decision of what charges to bring and the Judge has to apply the guidelines and explain if the Judge deviates from the guidelines (upward or downward).
.50 sniper rifle from his living room - just to see how far the bullet goes? GUESS WHAT - we have to have laws!).
FWIW, this guy is much more than a spammer and 30 years is far from a reasonable sentence. 300 years for conspiracy to murder the child of an adverse witness is a fair term FOR THAT ONE CRIME.
A Cage is where we put people too dangerous to be a part of society. (IMHO, that includes you loonies who think business and people should have unfettered power - s**t what happens when your "unfettered" business starts feeding us CO-treated bad meat or your drunken neighbor decides to fire his
Still excessive in my opinion. American sentences boggle one's mind... After Stalin's death the maximum sentence in USSR was reduced from 25 years to 15 — although many crimes were still punishable by death (as they are here) and one also got to spend their days in much harsher conditions than in the US.
The main difference here is that in the US sentences are added up upon one another, whereas in most of the rest of the world they run concurrently. It could be argued, that American system continues to deter criminals after their first crime, while the other system makes the subsequent crimes "free". On the other hand, once a crook has accumulated enough years in US, their subsequent crimes are also free, because any sentence will be, in effect, a life one. With a considerable sentencing leeway given to judges, in neither system do the subsequent crimes need to be "free".
Increasing the harshness of the punishment hardens the criminals and makes them more likely to escalate violence. There is a well known historical precedent from medieval Europe, where a local baron instituted death penalty for highway robbers. Having nothing more to risk, the robbers started killing their victims instead of simply robbing them...
What works best is the inevitability of punishment, rather then the harshness of it. 25% of the spammers receiving a 1 year sentence would deter more scumbags, than 2 of them (a fraction of a percent) getting publicly chopped up on a wheel.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
After reading the article, the only part that's remotely related to nerds is his use of spam as a marketing ploy. Other than that, he is a run-of-the-mill (although quite successful) drug dealing criminal. He was selling controlled substances that are narcotic by nature and addictive. He fled the country with a fake passport, illegally withdrew funds, threatened to kill the child of a witness... he had wrapped his cash in plastic and hid it in cereal boxes... that's not exactly a common trait for a nerd or geek.
Just for the record, I'm against all forms of prohibition that require mandatory prison sentences for the posession of drugs for personal use. However, this is possibly even WORSE than other illicit drugs because it undermines the rules that are in place to ensure the safe and legal distribution of drugs to those who need them. Since I don't know all the details of the case I can't say if 30 years is light or heavy, but what I do know is that this is 30 years for being a drug dealer. Not for being a spammer. I have no sympathy.
This case has NOTHING to do with running an illegal online pharmacy, escaping to the Dominican Republic, fake medicines, ripping people off, tax evasion or accessing the 'frozen' account. The guy got 30 years for repeated IP infringement.
Article I, section 8: "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;"
I'll be the first one to admit that this clause has been abused, but if this constitutes abuse, it's at least much closer to the original intent than many other applications of the ICC.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
What the hell is up with rape being considered part and parcel of a just prison sentence? It is just sickening that a large segment of our population does not seem to have a problem with people being raped, assaulted, or otherwise abused while in prison. Imprisonment is supposed to be the punishment for serious crimes, not imprisonment, rape, etc.
I think the inquiring about a hit man and asking someone to take photos of a cooperating witness' children is probably what really did him in. Witness tampering and death threats should mean a long sentence in the big house.
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch
The political philosophy of anarchy could be called libertarian socialism as opposed to communism which could be called authoritarian socialism.
Libertarianism, as extolled by the American Libertarian party, purports to believe in political freedom whilst maintaining private property but with no regulation of any kind on the private property and whilst having no commons.
Anarchy doesn't mean everything is "legal" and that there are no rules. Anarchy posits a system in which people have political and economic liberty, but there would still be rules though those rules would be agreed upon by everyone and there would be the ability for an individual to opt-out. Murder would not be "legal" or tolerated under anarchy, but as a practical matter, the only type of murder likely to come about would be crimes of passion since the economic incentive to murder would be non-existent.
No, that's not right either. Crimes committed in prison should not be given a free pass by society, whether rape, assault, or whatever.
I agree. But that is no reason for some people to condone criminal behavior in prisons.
BTW, I love how I got modded "Flamebait" for speaking out against rape. Nice...
If it helps, keep in mind that their conviction of these crimes will follow them around pretty much for the rest of their lives. Most employment applications require the applicant to be forthcoming on felony convictions. For good jobs, many applications indicating a felony conviction find their way very quickly to the circular file. Life will be very hard for them. Maybe better than prison, but still very hard.
Perhaps you didn't read what I had to say. The judge presiding in the case offered to write a letter of recommendation if one of the convicted had problems getting a job.
There are two basic problems. The primary one is that doctors are legally restricted about how much medication they can give, and are taking professional risks if they don't seriously restrict the prescriptions they write for these medications. The government is stopping doctors from helping people in the name of the "War on Drugs."
The second problem is that only the pain sufferer knows what they are going through. I think some doctors do not give the sufferer enough choice about what degree of medication they take. My doctor denied me a hydrocodone (Vicodin) refill, despite these facts: 1. It provided pain relief when over the counter drugs did not. 2. My pain was very bad and was reducing my ability to work, sleep, and generally function. 3. I was only taking 50% of the maximum allowed daily dose. I had not abused the medication in any way, and used it only when most needed. 4. A reasonable dose of hydrocodone is actually safer than many over-the-counter pain drugs.
The only reason my doctor could give for denying my medication was the risk of developing addiction. But I had showed no signs of addiction, and when I stopped the medication I experienced no withdrawal. I just experienced a lot of pain.
For more very interesting thoughts see this article, "The DEA's War on Pain Doctors"
Fuck them. Good for you for speaking your mind. People seem to have forgot the whole reform idea. If you put someone into a place where the only protection they have is packs and violence then what will you get when they come out? And what about the people in prison for crimes they didn't commit? We all know it happens. Or for things like the drug laws where local and federal laws are misaligned?
There are some crimes I don't condone and people I personally wouldn't like to see re-integrated back into society (rapists, sociopaths who murder). But there are a lot of people who make mistakes and should be allowed to return to society after serving their time.
Quack, quack.
Go to another doctor. If your condition can be documented and the doctor believes you, you will get the medication. I would not put my career on the line if I had second thoughts about your condition. Maybe doctors operate that way because they are under the scope for these things and do not want to have to justify it. I still feel that if they feel confident they can back up their diagnosis of you and that you need the medication, you will get it. For every person like you, there are 50 others that would sue that doctor in a heartbeat for prescribing them an addicting drug in negligence or when you can't get any more, you resort to stealing it and they find his name on a bottle in your car.