Christopher William Smith ("Rizler") (born January 28, 1980) is an American convicted criminal who was a prolific e-mail spammer, and sold drugs online from his illegal Xpress Pharmacy Direct in

Burnsville, Minnesota Burnsville ( ) is a city south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city is situated on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He was released from prison on October 13, 2020.

Early life

Smith grew up in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, splitting his time between his father's house on

Lake Minnetonka Lake Minnetonka (Dakota language, Dakota: ''Mní iá Tháŋka'') is a lake located about west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake Minnetonka has about 23 named bays and areas. The lake lies within Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin and ...

and his mother's house in Burnsville. He attended

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

at the

Academy of Holy Angels Academy of Holy Angels (AHA) is a private Catholic high school in Richfield, Minnesota. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the nationally recognized college-preparatory school educates more than 600 students ...

and later transferred to a public school in Lakeville, but never completed high school.

Business and conviction

He was charged in August 2005 with

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

to distribute

controlled substances A controlled substance is generally a drug or chemical whose manufacture, possession and use is regulated by a government, such as illicitly used drugs or prescription medications that are designated by law. Some treaties, notably the Single ...

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...

, selling misbranded drugs and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

. Federal officials added a count of operating a continuing criminal enterprise in a revised

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

filed in May 2006. During his final year in business he earned $18 million and had an 85-employee company. In addition, he violated court order by leaving the country and withdrawing frozen assets after having his bail revoked. In January 2006, Smith was, in a separate case, ordered to pay

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

$5.6 million (or $25,000 for every day he sent out spam e-mails) for spamming its members in 2003. In October 2006, Dr. Phillip Mach, who wrote the prescriptions for Smith's customers, pleaded guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances, four counts of wire fraud, three counts of unlawful distribution and dispensing of a controlled substance, and five counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. In November 2006, Smith was convicted on nine counts by a federal

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. On August 1, 2009 he was sentenced to 20 years in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. According to the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...

, Smith (ID # 12310-041) was housed at the

Federal Correctional Institution, Phoenix The Federal Correctional Institution, Phoenix (FCI Phoenix) is a medium-security United States federal prison for male and female inmates in Arizona. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Ju ...

, but as of 2012 was moved to

United States Penitentiary, Canaan The United States Penitentiary, Canaan (USP Canaan) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in northeastern Pennsylvania, with a satellite prison camp for minimum-security male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau ...

and his projected release date was 31 July 2023. As of August 17, 2014 Smith was incarcerated at the

Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood The Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood (FCC Allenwood) is a federal prison complex for male inmates in Pennsylvania, United States. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The p ...

in White Deer, PA, but has since been moved first to

Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute The Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute (FCC Terre Haute) is a United States federal prison complex for male inmates in Terre Haute, Indiana. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Jus ...

, and then in 2015 to

Federal Medical Center, Lexington The Federal Medical Center, Lexington (FMC Lexington) is a United States federal prison in Kentucky for male or female inmates requiring medical or mental health care. It is designated as an administrative facility, which means that it holds inma ...

, a federal prison for inmates requiring medical or mental health care. His projected release date was to be extended to 3 February 2024, but he was released from prison on 13 October 2020.

References

External links

Xpress Pharmacy Direct
(former website from

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

)
Supermax lockup for spammer RizlerList of Forfeited VehiclesThe Rise and Fall of Christopher Smith
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Christopher William 1980 births Living people Email spammers American people convicted of money laundering American cybercriminals Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government People from Burnsville, Minnesota American businesspeople convicted of crimes

Early life

Business and conviction

See also

References

External links