Burnsville, Minn. – Christopher Smith’s neighbors didn’t know exactly what he did for a living. But they did know that he liked to collect expensive cars and set off fireworks at all hours.
At an age when most of his peers could barely afford a new car, Smith was amassing a collection that would include BMWs, Hummers, a Ferrari, a Jaguar and a Lamborghini. And when other 20-somethings were trying to save for down payments on modest starter homes, Smith paid $1.1 million for a house.
Smith got all that through his successes in unsolicited e-mail marketing, authorities say. The Spamhaus Project, an anti-spam group, considered him one of the world’s worst offenders.
He was just 25 when federal authorities in May shut down his flagship company, Xpress Pharmacy Direct, and seized $1.8 million in luxury cars, two homes and $1.3 million in cash.
But even then, prosecutors say, he refused to give up.
They say he tried to relaunch his online pharmacy from an offshore haven – the Dominican Republic – intending to build his business back up to $4.1 million in sales by its second month, right where it was before.
Brian McWilliams, author of “Spam Kings,” said young people like Smith aren’t unusual in the fast-buck world of spammers.
“A lot of them are guys who haven’t had success anywhere else in life but they find this easy money to be made in the spam trade,” he said. “They don’t want to give it up.”
Authorities were waiting when Smith flew back to Minneapolis in late June.
Smith remains free on bail as he awaits another hearing Thursday on contempt-of-court charges, for which prosecutors are seeking six months in jail.
The high school dropout, operating under the nickname Rizler, got his start in the late 1990s, selling police radar and laser jammers, before adding cable-TV descramblers and other products.
After Time Warner Cable got an injunction in 2002, Smith diversified and generated more than $18 million in online sales from drugs.
