Facebook had sued Sanford Wallace in February with Adam Arzoomanian and also Scott Shaw for allegedly getting the login credentials for the accounts. These accounts were used then to send spam to the friends of the users starting around the month of November in the year 2008.

The spam was either linked to some other phishing sites that sought for collecting more Facebook account credentials or was linked to some other commercial Web sites who have paid the spammers for referrals.

According to a blog of the company, Facebook does not expect to receive a vast majority of the award. According to the court filings, Wallace has filed a petition for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for District of Nevada earlier in the year, though this petition was dismissed eventually.

However, the District Court of U.S. for Northern District of California has requested to the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecuting Wallace for the criminal contempt. The court has come up with an amount of $711 million figure by distributing an amount of $50 for one violation of the Act of CAN-SPAM.