A man accused of defrauding people through tens of millions of spam email messages sent around the world was denied bail, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report said US magistrate judge James P. Donohue said Robert Soloway, 27, of Seattle, should remain in jail until his trial scheduled for August 6 because he has minimal ties to Washington state and has family in Sweden.
'These are allegations of cyber crimes that have no geographical borders,' Donohue was quoted as saying. 'It's just as easy to continue these actions in Sweden as it is in the US.'
But Soloway's attorney, Richard Troberman, wrote in a court filing that the government's evidence that Soloway would flee was 'woefully short on facts,' the Associated Press report said.
Soloway has only traveled out of the country with his parents, Troberman said.
Soloway, dubbed the 'Spam King' by US investigators, was arrested May 30 on 35 charges including mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, the report said.
Mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering are punishable by up to 20 years in prison, the report added.
The government is also seeking $773,000 as proceeds of Soloway's activities.
Federal prosecutors allege that Soloway has sent tens of millions of email messages since 2003 to advertise his company, which offered software to send out broadcast emails.
The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization, listed Soloway as one of about 135 spammers deemed responsible for as much as 80% of all junk email, the report further said.