NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A man who claims to be the "Godfather of Spam" has been sentenced to 51 months in prison by a federal judge in Detroit for his lead role in an e-mail stock scam scheme, according to court documents. Alan Ralsky, 64, also faces five years probation and will have to forfeit $250,000 that was seized by the government in 2007.
U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani also sentenced three others Monday for their involvement in the scheme, including Ralsky's son-in-law Scott Bradley, 48, who received 40 months in prison and five years probation.
Ralsky and Bradley were charged for conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud and violating the CAN-SPAM Act, which criminalizes large, commercial e-mail messages sent using an unauthorized computer or with the intent to hide the e-mail's original source, according to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. They were also charged with committing wire fraud and engaging in money laundering.
Ralsky and Bradley, both of West Bloomfield, Mich., pleaded guilty to the charges in June.
Ralsky's history as a prolific spammer dates back to 1997. Before the Bush administration passed a law to crack down on e-mail marketers in 2003, Ralsky reportedly sent 70 million messages a day from fake names.
In the operation that began in January 2004, the team sent billions of illegal e-mail advertisements to inflate the price of Chinese penny stocks and then reaped the profit, according to the prosecutor's office. They raked in nearly $3 million during the summer of 2005.