Blast from the Past: Adam Guerbuez

While reading the latest stories on the CBC News website, we couldn't help but notice the significant judgment levied against a Montreal-based spammer:

Quebec spammer must pay Facebook $873M

Ouch! However, despite what might be a record judgment, the $873 million fine isn't what intrigued us. It was the name of the person who now has to pay the judgment:

A Quebec man has been ordered to pay Facebook $873 million US after he bombarded its members with explicit spam messages.

The Quebec Superior Court has upheld a U.S. court ruling that ordered Adam Guerbuez and his company Atlantis Blue Capital to pay damages to the social networking giant.

Quebec Judge Lucie Fournier also forbade Guerbuez from having a Facebook account or being involved in any way with the social-networking site ever again.

Of course our dear readers might wonder why we, an anti-racist blog, would take any interst in Mr. Guerbuez at all.

How is this for a start:

Hate crime and punishment

Regarding the article "Judging Hate" [Nov. 15], we at ARA Montreal must inform you that our opinion of the Christian Thomas murder trial was not expressed in the article due to miscommunication. We apologize for the confusion.

The SPCUM and specifically their anti-gang squad have extensive knowledge of these neo-Nazi gangs' activities. Yet, at the time of the arrests, they chose to officially deny "that any of the suspects have any link whatsoever to individuals belonging to hate groups." We found out that the suspects did (and still do), and that the police were lying. We sent out a press release to all of Montreal's media. No mainstream media that interviewed us published anything. Police officials refused to comment on our allegations. The prosecution claimed that after reviewing the case the police had prepared, they had no reason to believe that there was any neo-Nazi gang link.

During the trial, the prosecution used the testimonies of a dozen neo-Nazis, also present when the murder occurred, to convict Sacha Montreuil. At this same trial, not only did the three accused admit their association with neo-Nazis, but also one of them, Adam Guerbuez, admitted being a three-year Heritage Front member. Even though our allegations were initially denied by local authorities and are now proven to be founded, the media still hasn't published the truth. The SPCUM, to this day, still do not admit their flagrant lack of transparency. We feel that the police and media have betrayed the public.

--Kenneth Case, ARA Montreal

And this one is also interesting:

Crazypricks still at large

A company that videotaped and marketed real attacks on local vagrants probably won't face the wrath of the law, according to local police.

Six separate files were opened relating to the matter, but because there were no official plainitiffs, there has been little progress. "I'd be very surprised if anything is new on it," says Sgt. Michel Fontaine of the Montreal police.

The organizer of the site, Adam Guerbuez, an admitted white-power skinhead who says he has left the movement, claims to have sold several thousand of the $20 videos and attracted 9,000 more paid subscribers to the site, www. crazypricks.com. He has since disconnected his mobile phone and taken his site down.

One longtime member of Anti-Racist Action (ARA) who has kept close tabs on Guerbuez says the attacks on the homeless appear even more repulsive than the usual activities conducted by those involved in racist groups. Guerbuez was acquitted in the trial of a group attack that led to the death of Christian Thomas, 39, on June 24, 2000. Of the three accused, only Sacha Montreuil was convicted last year.

"I assumed (the attacks on the homeless) is something (racist skinheads) would get their asses kicked for by other Nazis because a lot of these homeless are white people. Many Nazis might think, ‘Let's help get these proud white men out of the gutter and make them proud Aryan warriors like ourselves,'" says the ARA spokesman, who goes nameless to protect his identity for fear of violent retribution. » Kristian Gravenor

Perhaps Mr. Guerbuez has left the Movement as he claimed in the 2003 article. Perhaps not. We just find it interesting that regardless of his current status, he still appears to be living what we would consider to be a parasitic existence.

UPDATE: The "National Post" covered this story today, mentioning Guerbuez's recent ties to the racist movement.

Racist or not, douche is still an apt description of Mr. Guerbuez:

'I will not have to pay a penny' to Facebook

Graeme Hamilton, National Post · Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010

MONTREAL - Courts in the United States and Canada have ordered him to pay Facebook Inc. more than $1-billion for hacking into its network, but a high-living Montreal spammer says the company will not see a cent because he has declared bankruptcy.

In a decision made public this week, Quebec Superior Court ruled that a 2008 U.S. judgment ordering Adam Guerbuez to pay $1-billion in damages is enforceable in Quebec. The penalty was the equivalent of US$200 for each of the more than four million spam messages he sent to Facebook users.

Mr. Guerbuez did not contest the case brought against him in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. But his lawyer argued before Superior Court that the damages awarded were disproportionate to the alleged offence. Justice Lucie Fournier disagreed, ruling that it would be an affront to public order if Quebec were to shelter him from California justice.

"If that were the case, it would allow all sorts of infraction to take place via the Internet with impunity, and the revenue from these activities would not be seizable in Quebec," the judge wrote.

Mr. Guerbuez succeeded in sending messages advertising penis enlargement pills and porn to people's Facebook pages, making it appear as if they had come from friends.

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Guerbuez, 34, boasted he has remained a step ahead of Facebook by filing for personal bankruptcy. "I will not have to pay a penny of that because I ... declared bankruptcy two months ago," he said. "If you want to call it clever, go ahead."

Bankruptcy trustee Rochelle Pont confirmed he has been in bankruptcy since June 30.

Judging from his personal website, bankruptcy has not put a serious damper on his lifestyle. Recent photos and videos show him in Beverly Hills, behind the wheel of a Mercedes driving to Las Vegas and shooting craps in a casino. A blog entry from last January includes pictures of his trip to the Cayman Islands.

In its lawsuit, Facebook filed as evidence YouTube videos on which Mr. Guerbuez boasts about his wealth and shows off his flashy cars. It quotes a website describing Mr. Guerbuez as a "notorious Internet scammer."

The California court files also include older material relating to his past in the white-supremacist movement. In 1995, when he was 19, he identified himself to Montreal's The Gazette newspaper as "chief media liaison" in Quebec for the Heritage Front, a Canadian neo-Nazi organization that disbanded in 2005. In 2000 he was charged with aggravated assault in connection with a fatal attack outside a Montreal bar frequented by neo-Nazis. He was acquitted, and an acquaintance was convicted of manslaughter.

In 2003, the Montreal Mirror reported he was promoting a video of attacks on Montreal vagrants, accompanied by music described as a "racist-skinhead anthem." A 2007 video he posted to YouTube features his Chrysler 300C, custom-painted with a large Iron Cross on the hood. The cross is sometimes used as a hate symbol because of its association with Nazi Germany, but Mr. Guerbuez said he painted it on his car as a tribute to his mother's Catholic background. He noted that the same cross is used as a symbol by the West Coast Choppers motorcycle company, so he thought it was appropriate for a souped-up automobile.

He does not deny getting involved in the white supremacist movement but says it was an error of his youth. "You do things when you're young, and you regret them and you leave them in your past," he said.

He said he regrets "associating with the wrong people, wasting years of my life on a completely ridiculous cause that was going nowhere, associating myself with gangsters and criminals."

He said he is self-employed as an "Internet marketing specialist." He objects to the label spammer, saying his line of work is no different from that of companies that send flyers through letter slots. "Like everyone else, I'm living the good life, and everything's fine," he said.

The Montreal lawyer representing Facebook could not be reached for comment.

ghamilton@nationalpost.com