A 24-year-old former software engineer at America Online pleaded guilty Friday to stealing and selling 92 million user names and e-mail addresses, setting off an avalanche of up to seven billion unsolicited e-mail messages, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Jason Smathers of Harpers Ferry, W.Va., entered the plea to conspiracy charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He is likely to face 18 months to two years in prison when he is sentenced May 20, the Times said.
Mr. Smathers must also pay $200,000 to $400,000, the amount the government estimates AOL spent as a result of the messages, according to the Times.
In December, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rejected a similar plea by Mr. Smathers, saying he was not convinced that Mr. Smathers had committed a crime, the Times reported. But the judge said Friday that prosecutors had persuaded him.
According to the Times, Mr. Smathers told the judge that he accepted $28,000 from someone who wanted to promote an offshore gambling site to AOL customers, knowing that the list of screen names might make its way to others who would send e-mail solicitations.
“Do you wish to accept responsibility for what you did?” the judge asked Mr. Smathers.
“Yes, sir, I do,” he answered.
David Siegal, a federal prosecutor, said Mr. Smathers had moved stolen property across state lines and had violated the federal CAN-SPAM Act meant to cut down on unsolicited e-mail messages, the Times said.
In December, the judge said he had dropped his own AOL membership because of too much spam, according to the Times.
The company has since begun an assault on spam, significantly reducing unsolicited e-mail. America Online is a unit of Time Warner.
Mr. Smathers was fired by AOL in June, the Times reported. Authorities said he used another employee’s access code to steal the list of customers in 2003 from AOL’s headquarters in Dulles, VA.
