Russian man denies role in spam network

Oleg Nikolaenko, a Russian man accused of being responsible for sending around a third of the world's spam, has pleaded not guilty in a federal court in the USA.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warrant for the arrest of Nikolaenko after an investigation linked him to a botnet known as Mega-D which sent 'billions of spam emails" selling items such as "counterfeit Rolexes, non-FDA-approved herbal remedies and counterfeit prescription medications," according to an affidavit available on the Krebsonsecurity website.

The affidavit also links Nikolaenko to Lance Atkinson, an Australian who was fined $15.5m a year ago for sending spam emails peddling fake medicines and adulterated dietary supplements, along with Atkinson's brother Shane and an affiliate called Jody Smith.

Nikolaenko is charged with violating the USA's seven-year-old anti-spam law, the CAN-SPAM Act, and running a global network of more than 500,000 virus-infected personal computers.


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