Steven Rombom
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Steven Rombom (aka Steven Rambam) is a licensed private investigator and the founder of Pallorium Inc., which bills itself as the largest privately held online private investigation service in the United States. Rombom is also a technical advisor providing information for the private investigator character (named "Rambam") in a number of Kinky Friedman's mystery novels.[1][2] Rombom frequently refers to himself as Steven Rambam, although FBI documents show that "Rambam" is merely an alias.
Rombom is also a regular speaker on the topics of investigations and he has appeared a number of times at conferences for computer hackers, including the popular H.O.P.E. conferences. Rombom has been declared an expert on the topic of investigations by a judge in a 2001 California trial.
In 1996, Rombom (as "Rambam) received press for his efforts at finding Nazi war criminals. He also was noted for revealing evidence that Elvis Presley had Jewish ancestors.[3]
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[edit] Lawsuit against Jewish Defense Organization
Rombom (using "Rambam" alias) sued the Jewish Defense Organization and its founder and leader, Mordechai Levy, in 1997 alleging defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and incitement to violence.[3] Rombom is a former member of the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO). JDO runs a website that attacks Rombom. The judge ordered the Jewish Defense Organization to remove some accusations from its webpages that he determined were made without sufficient evidence, however the site still publishes a large volume of documents about him.
[edit] Lawsuit against spamfighter
In September 2004, Steven Rombom's company, Pallorium, Inc., sued Joe Jared, operator of the free OsiruSoft Open Relay Spam Stopper, alleging that Jared was innappropriately including Pallorium, Inc. on its spam blacklist pages.[3][4] Jared's blacklist site ran software that determined that Pallorium was running an open mail relay and published that information. The case Pallorium vs. Jared was ruled in favor of Jared. In his judgment for Jared, the judge ruled that the Communications Decency Act provided him with immunity from such lawsuits provided that he was making a good faith effort to stop spam. The judge noted that Pallorium was an "innocent party" and it was suffering from "collateral damage from the war on spam", but the law prevented Pallorium from recovering damages from Jared.[5] Pallorium appealed the decision of the trial court, but on January 11, 2007 the California Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in favor of Jared. The appeal court ruled that "the Communications Decency Act immunizes 'a provider . . . of an interactive computer service' who makes available to 'others the technical means to restrict access to material . . . the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected.'" As the Court said, "whether Jared's filter was over-inclusive is irrelevant so long as he deemed the material to be 'obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.'"[6]
[edit] Arrest and charges for impersonating an FBI officer
On July 24, 2006 Rombom was arrested by the FBI on charges that he unlawfully interfered with an ongoing case prosecutors filed against Albert Santoro, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney who was indicted in Jan. 2003 with one count of money-laundering. [7][8][9]The arrest of Rombom occurred as he was in the halls of Hotel Pennsylvania, preparing for his speech at the Hope Number Six hacker conference in New York City. Authorities alleged that Rombom impersonated an FBI officer while visiting the in-laws of a person that he was paid to investigate. The government alleged that Rambam was attempting to intimidate a confidential informant in an ongoing case against Santoro.[10]
Rombom appeared in federal court on September 13, 2006. He was released on $25,000 bail and his arraignment was originally scheduled for October 23, 2006.[1] The case was dismissed without prejudice on the recommendation of the prosecutor on October 13, 2006.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Andrew Dalton "Inspiration for Kinky Friedman's mystery novels accused of posing as FBI agent" Associated Press September 13, 2006
- ^ About Pallorium Pallorium, Inc. official website
- ^ a b c Brian McWilliams "Spam, the Nazi hunter and Citizen Joe" Salon.com September 7, 2004
- ^ The Morris Law Firm "Recent Victories: A Victory Against Spam"
- ^ Superior Court of California, County of Orange Pallorium vs. Jared et al court ruling issued September 25, 2004.
- ^ Court of Appeal Opinion, January 11, 2007 "Opinion"
- ^ Brian Krebs "FBI Charges HOPE Speaker with Witness Tampering, Obstructing Justice" Washington Post Security Fix July 24, 2006
- ^ Brian Krebs "Agents Arrest Background Specialist at Hackers Forum" Washington Post July 25, 2006; Page D05
- ^ Brian Krebs "HOPE Speaker Arrested by the Feds" Washington Post Security Fix July 22, 2006
- ^ CNN.com "Kinky Friedman inspiration gets busted: Private eye is charged with posing as FBI agent to bully witness" July 25, 2006
- ^ United State of America vs. Steven Rombom, Order of Dismissal of Magistrate's Complaint; October 13, 2006
