A New Zealand man living in Queensland and believed to be behind the world's largest spam operation, has been ordered to pay more than $16 million for running the illegal enterprise.



Lance Atkinson, 26, originally from Christchurch, was living in Pelican Waters on the Sunshine Coast when the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had his assets frozen last year.

The house on Queensland's Gold Coast that is registered as being owned by Lance Atkinson, a New Zealander implicated in a global spam email operation.

He had previously admitted sending spam and was fined $100,000 by a New Zealand court, but the FTC saw that further punishment was due. Yesterday, the Commission fined him $16 million in a decision mirroring that of the Federal Court in Brisbane in October, which handed the same penalty to handed to two SMS spamming companies.



The FTC found Atkinson and American Jody Smith were at the centre of the world's largest internet spam operation, dubbed "AffKing", having recruited spammers from around the world.