Based on a complaint filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the San Jose Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a temporary restraining order has been issued, effectively shuttering a rogue Internet Service Provider that allegedly recruits, knowingly hosts, and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content.

The complaint alleges that Pricewert LLC, which does business under a variety of names including 3FN and APS Telecom, actively shielded its criminal clientele by either ignoring take-down requests issued by the online security community, or shifting its criminal elements to other Internet protocol addresses it controlled to evade detection.

The FTC also alleges that the defendant engaged in the deployment and operation of botnets – in filings with the district court, it is alleged that more than 4,500 bots were controlled by command-and-control servers hosted by 3FN.

More information is availble from the FTC's website.