Scott Richter has agreed to pay the sum to settle a lawsuit filed by Microsoft against his company, OptInRealBig.com. The suit claimed that the company had sent millions of emails using fake sender names and false subject lines.
As part of the settlement, Richter has also agreed that he would only send emails to people who have opted-in to receive them. However, he denied wrongdoing. Court records showed that his business had $20m in revenues last year.
Microsoft intends $5m of the funds to boost its efforts to fight spam, as well as donating $1m to community centres to help buy computers for underprivileged children in New York state.
Microsoft's senior vice-president and general counsel Brad Smith said: "When we filed this action, Mr Richter was listed as one of the top three spammers in the world.
"Because of this litigation, Mr Richter has fundamentally changed his practices and forfeited ill-gotten gains. Microsoft looks forward to a permanent change in Mr Richter's practices."
Separately, AOL is giving away assets seized from a spammer, including a Hummer and $20,000 in gold bars. It has previously given away a sports car that belonged to a spammer.
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