A federal jury in Phoenix has convicted a Paradise Valley man and his California business partner on eight charges related to a pornographic e-mail spam operation.James Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley and Jeffrey Kilbride, 41, of Venice, Calif., were found guilty Monday of transporting obscene materials, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy for the operation they started in 2003. The two sent e-mails with links to pornographic Web sites to hundreds of thousands of people, Assistant Attorney General Alice Fischer said. Prosecutors said that every time someone followed a link to a Web site, Schaffer and Kilbride earned a commission. They were paid more than $2 million, which they moved in and out of the country to conceal the proceeds, Fischer said. Witnesses from AOL and the Federal Trade Commission said more than 660,000 complaints were received due to the spam. Sentencing is set for Sept. 24.
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