October 10, 2004 | Fax Toner Salesmen Looking for New Jobs

Looks like sheets of fax paper around the country are going to be as blank as Fax.com's defunct website.

Or to paraphrase a country song, if your fax is not printing, its Fax.com that's not calling.

The California AG won a preliminary injunction against Fax.com and its employees and all the shadow companies it created to hide from a $5million federal fine. Fax.com agreed to the stipulation, meaning that the company officially is now dead, unless its employees are stupid enough to risk criminal sanctions.

Here's the full lowdown in my Wired News story.

It couldn't have happened to sleazier guys.

I do feel bad, though.

What the hell are these folks going to say at their next job interview?

"Well sir, I spent the last few years making sure the fax machine at your company spit out non-stop spam messages about junk stocks..."

Fax.com's "compliance officer" Charles Martin can't even fall back on his career as a private investigator, since California pulled his license for lying in court.

Also, I wonder if the CEO Kevin Katz will have any friends after this is all over, once his business partners and employees figure out he's been stealing from them the whole time (I got the docs to prove it and for those Fax.commer's who find their way here, I've got a hint for you if you are trying to figure out how you got ripped off -- kickbacks).

Some folks who might be looking for new work soon: Robert W. Battaglia, Paul L. Stanton, Joe Garson, Eric Wilson, Thomas Roth, Jeffrey Dupree, and Erwin Dass.

And for those folks who have sued Fax.com and won but are wondering where Fax.com squirreled away their money, I'm pretty sure that Shari Odenheimer of the Cozen O'Connor law firm would be happy to put you in touch with a man named Serge and a little thing known as The Cascade Trust.

Posted by Ryan Singel at October 10, 2004 11:16 PM