California man arrested for spam threat to New York Life

A man dissatisfied with the return on his investment in a variable life insurance policy allegedly threatened the policy's issuer, New York Life, with a spam email campaign, which resulted in his arrest over the weekend.

Anthony Digati, a 52-year-old from Chino, California, allegedly claimed on a website that he would send six million emails to potential New York Life customers if they did not pay him nearly $200,000 - which the Wall Street Journal reports is four times as much as he paid to the company in premiums.

Digati was charged with one count of extortion by Manhattan prosecutors and could face two years in prison if convicted. The New York Daily News reported that "Digati may have realized that might happen because in one of his emails, he boasted, 'no judge in the world is going to rule for a 200 billion-dollar company when there is a lonely customer that you stole from.'"

The Journal noted that Digati originally contacted the insurance company over his claims in February.