Leonid Aleksandrovitch Kuvayev (born 13 May 1972), who usually goes by the name of Leo, is a Russian/American spammer and convicted child molester believed to have been the ringleader of one of the world's biggest spam gangs. In 2005, he and six business partners were fined $37 million as a result of a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts attorney general.Massachusetts tackles spam gang BBC News, May 12, 2005 It was found that they were responsible for millions of unsolicited e-mails per day. According to Spamhaus he could be the "Pharmamaster" spammer who performed a denial-of-service attack (DDoS) against the BlueSecurity company. Kuvayev is also behind countless phishing and money mule recruiting sites hosted on botnets. He has been called a "spam czar", and a "virtual criminal".
Kuvayev has registered domains with registrars operating in China, New Zealand, and France. Most of his actual web pages have been hosted in China. It is suspected by some information security professionals that Kuvayev may have been involved in the operation and control of the Storm botnet.David Utter, Security Pro News, "Storm Botnet Driving PDF Spam" , July 13, 2007.
As of 1 June 2011, Kuvayev had confessed to sex crimes, sexually molesting girls as young as 13 years of age using the basement of his office in Moscow as a "dungeon". Kuvayev allegedly targeted vulnerable youngsters from children's homes, some of whom had mental or learning disabilities. Reports indicated that Kuvayev could face up to 20 years in prison for each offence.Notorious Russian spammer 'admits child abuse' The Register, June 1, 2011Graham Cluley, Sophos.com, "Spam king faces jail after admitting child sex charges" , May 31, 2011.Tom Washington, The Moscow News, "Cyber crime lord faces child rape charges" , May 30, 2011.
On 23 March 2012, a court in Moscow found Kuvayev guilty of sexual molestation charges.Lenta.ru, Rambler Media Group, "Jury convicts Spammer-Pedophile Kuvayev", March 23, 2012. On 29 March 2012, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
See also Sanford Wallace Oleg Nikolaenko List of spammers
References
External links Spamhaus record linking the alias Alex Rodrigez to Leo Kuvayev European Spam Wiki entry on Leo Kuvayev AbuseButler recent WHOIS for Alex Rodrigez domain The devil in the Internet, comprehensive article on Kuvayev and his vita so far (in German)