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Suspect in AOL Theft Makes Conflicting Impressions

LAS VEGAS -- As reported by USA Today: ``There was little about 21-year-old Sean Dunaway to suggest he was plotting the huge e-mail heist alleged by federal prosecutors.

"He launched a tech start-up while in high school, becoming one of hundreds of budding entrepreneurs in boomtown Las Vegas. He spent days hunched over a home office computer or walking his yellow Labrador, Buddy, in a working-class neighborhood far from the city's glittering casinos.

"...Still, Dunaway was a "very nice gentleman. You'd never expect anything like that," said neighbor Christo Zaferatos.

"'That," of course, was the swarm of federal agents busting down Dunaway's door early June 23 and hauling him off in handcuffs. Federal prosecutors accused him of an audacious crime: conspiring with an America Online employee to steal 92 million AOL e-mail addresses later sold to a spammer hawking penis-enlargement pills.

"Dunaway ran an online gambling venture, Justice Department prosecutors say, making as much as $20,000 a day, enough to pay the rogue AOL employee $100,000 for the highly sought addresses.

"...Dunaway's attorney, Kevin Kelly, disputes the allegations. Kelly says Dunaway engaged in e-mail marketing but did not operate an online gambling venture. Dunaway did not respond to requests for comment.

"Prosecutors say Dunaway had run a gambling business at least since spring 2003. They do not give its name or other details. If he was running a gambling site that took bets, he did so below the radar of industry experts who say they never heard of him. Operating such a business on U.S. soil is illegal. which tracks online wagering.

"Dunaway and his alleged co-conspirator at AOL, Jason Smathers, 24, face up to five years in prison and fines of $250,000 under a national anti-spam law. They are to report to federal authorities in New York, where charges were filed, on July 23...."

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