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Cybersquatter Faces Jail Time For Wire Fraud

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it-isn't-true-till-i-see-a-summons dept.

coondoggie writes to mention that a Las Vegas man faces about 20 years in prison today after pleading guilty in a case where he impersonated intellectual property lawyers and tried to bully owners out of their domain names. "According to the FBI, David Scali is charged with registering an e-mail account under an alias and then sending e-mails in which he claimed to be the intellectual property lawyer. In the e-mails, which were sent in late June and early July of 2006, Scali threatened to file $100,000 trademark infringement lawsuits against the owners of various Internet website names unless they gave up their domain name registrations within two days."

7 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I knew something was fishy in his takedown requ by DavidJSimpson · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe he shouldn't have signed it Lionel Hutch, Esq.

    You mean Lionel Hutz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Hutz
    If you are going to impersonate someone, at least impersonate the right person.

  2. Not necessarily jail time by arth1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the bottom of TFA:

    "The plea agreement contemplates a sentence ranging from probation to six months in custody, but the sentencing judge will make the final decision as to what Scali's sentence will be."

    In other words, the title of this article is very misleading.

    1. Re:Not necessarily jail time by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, it isn't. If there was an article in which an armed robber was caught, he would be "facing" at least 5-10 years, maybe more if he killed someobdy. Whether the armed robber gets that sentence or not is up to the jury, or in some states, the sentencing judge. Do you read newspapers, Google News, or at least watch CNN?

      --
      My blog
    2. Re:Not necessarily jail time by Oztechreich · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's always hope.

      John Zuccarini ended up serving more than a year in prison for cybersquatting, and this seems more serious to me.

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      10001001111001110110011000011101110
  3. Re:20 years or only probation? Article says both. by AuMatar · · Score: 4, Informative

    The maximum sentence is 20 years. Prosecutors agreed to ask for something in the probation-6 months range in exchange for a guilty plea. The judge makes the final decision and he is allowed to give up to the maximum, although they usually follow the plea agreement.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  4. Probation more likely than 20yrs jail time by fv · · Score: 3, Informative

    The article title says he "faces 20 years in prison" to be sensational, and maybe that is the theoretical maximum. But the last line of the article says that "the plea agreement contemplates a sentence ranging from probation to six months in custody". The judge gets the final decision, but he is much more likely to get probation than a 20yr sentence.

    Fyodor

  5. Re:Uh-oh by pclminion · · Score: 2, Informative

    He's not being charged with two things, he's being charged with one thing. That "and" in there doesn't imply there are two separate aspects to his behavior. The two taken in conjunction constitute a SINGLE offense.