October 29, 2000

8:40 PM

An Australian Man who sent millions of e-mails around the world falsely stating shares in an American company would rise 900 per cent was today sentenced to two years in jail. The charges filed are believed among the first of their type made against anyone in the world. Mr Hourmouzis had pleaded guilty to two charges of making a false statement on the Internet.
posted by murray_kester (4 comments total)

Oops sorry URL is here
posted by murray_kester at 8:43 PM on October 29, 2000

" .... making a false statement on the Internet"?

Black is white! Night is day! Water is dry! Fire is cold! War is peace! Freedom is slavery! Ignorance is strength -- !

-- I'll go quietly, officer.
posted by webmutant at 12:49 AM on October 30, 2000

First of their type? Murray, you haven't been reading the papers much. There have been multiple prosecutions in the US for this sort of thing, though mainly in pre-existing chatrooms.

Is "making a false statement on the internet" an actual Aussie criminal statute, or is it merely making false statements in general that he's charged with? (The article's expired.)
posted by dhartung at 7:39 AM on October 30, 2000

The SEC has been pursuing pump-and-dump scam artists for several years now. Just recently on MeFi we discussed a kid who was fined for just such a scheme.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:33 AM on October 30, 2000