Alleged spammer lived fast, then feds moved in

By Steve Karnowski

updated 10:32 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2005

BURNSVILLE, Minn. - Christopher Smith's neighbors didn't know exactly what he did for a living. But they knew well 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 in a more affluent suburb.

Smith got all that through his successes in massive 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 the feds 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 held by Smith and associates.

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. He also faces a grand jury investigation of his e-mail businesses, which could lead to more charges and potentially longer sentences.

The high school dropout, operating under the nickname Rizler, got his start in the late 1990s, selling police radar and laser jammers. Along the way he added cable TV descramblers and other products.

After Time Warner Cable got an injunction in 2002 putting Smith out of the descrambler business, he diversified and generated more than $18 million in sales from drugs online, including the often-abused narcotic painkiller Vicodin, without obtaining proper prescriptions, federal prosecutors say.

Smith's former neighbors in a hilly, heavily wooded part of Burnsville were glad to see him go after he moved to pricier, more secluded digs in Prior Lake over the winter.

Sue Parson said things began to get out of hand in May 2004. When her husband complained about loud fireworks, she said, Smith's response was: "Too bad. We can set them off if we want to." Not long after one complaint, someone set off fireworks at the foot of the Parsons' driveway early one morning, she said.

Neighbors didn't know exactly what Smith did for a living. Parson said he told one person he had a lawn service, another that he was "into computers" and yet another that he was "into pharmaceuticals."

"There were these Hummers outside, the limos outside," she said. "It was like, 'Where do these people get their money from?'"

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