Facebook 'Spam King' denies sending 27 million messages

An American man accused of sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users faces 40 years in prison, if found guilty.

The self-proclaimed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace faces charges of fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and criminal contempt for violating previous orders to stay off the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace.

It is understood he compromised about 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 by sending more than 27 million spam messages.

Wallace denies the charges.