Alan Ralsky, dubbed the “Godfather of Spam” has been sentenced to 4 years in prison by a federal judge. Ralsky was convicted of conspiring to commit wire and mail fraud, violating the CAN-SPAM Act, wire fraud, and money laundering. He was the ringleader of a spam ring that raked in millions off of a “pump and dump” scam featuring Chinese penny stocks. He sent billons of spam messages promoting the penny stocks.

The scam works by tricking people into buying what they think is a hot stock, thereby artificially inflating its worth. The scammers then cash in and disappear, leaving their victims holding worthless stock and having lost hundreds to thousands of dollars.

“With today’s sentence of the self-proclaimed ‘Godfather of Spam’, Alan Ralsky, and three others who played central roles in a complicated stock spam pump- and-dump scheme, the court has made it clear that advancing fraud through the abuse of the Internet will lead to several years in prison,” said U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, in a statement on Monday.

Ralsky’s partners will also see jail time. His son-in-law Scott Bradly was sentenced to 40  months in prison and 5 years probation while How Wai John Hui, a Hong Kong resident who served as the dealmaker for the companies whose stocks were being hawked, got 4 years in prison and 3 years probation. Ralsky’s third partner, John Bown, will be spending 32 months in prison and 3 years on probation.

In addition to his prison time, Ralsky will also be put on 5 years probation and have to forfeit $250,000 seized by the government.

There are 7 others involved in the scam awaiting sentencing.