A Brooklyn man was sentenced to four years in federal prison yesterday and ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in restitution and fines for terrorizing over two dozen customers of his online eyewear company. Vitaly Borker, 36, first caught authorities' eyes when he opened his big fat mouth in an incredible NY Times article that detailed how he threatened to rape and dismember his dissatisfied customers when they complained. This guy makes the Soup Nazi look like Orville Redenbacher, amirite?
The Times started digging into this fascinating story in 2010 after they found disgruntled customer Clarabelle Rodriguez, who says that after she called Borker out for selling her counterfeit eyeglasses through his website, he told her "Listen, bitch, I know your address. I’m one bridge over” — a reference, as the Times puts it, "to the company’s office in Brooklyn. Then, she said, he threatened to find her and commit an act of sexual violence too graphic to describe in a newspaper." She wasn't alone, as she soon discovered by reading similar crazy complaints against Borker on consumer websites.
And according to Borker, that was all part of the plan, because even negative web chatter would boost him to the top of Google searches. (We have no idea what he's talking about.) He told the Times, "I’ve exploited this opportunity because it works. No matter where they post their negative comments, it helps my return on investment. So I decided, why not use that negativity to my advantage?" Soon after the article appeared, Google announced it was “horrified” by Borker’s strategy and had tweaked its search algorithm so that “being bad is, and hopefully will always be, bad for business in Google’s search results."
Then, a week later, federal agents arrested Borker and charged him with mail fraud, wire fraud, making interstate threats and cyberstalking. In May 2011 he pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and sending threatening communications. At his sentencing yesterday, he tearfully told the judge, “As I stand here before you today, I am genuinely and deeply sorry for the threats that I made. To say that I am ashamed of myself is an understatement. I had a big mouth and I couldn’t control it."
His lawyer pleaded for a lenient sentence, claiming that Borker was bipolar and arguing that out of thousands of customers, "only" 25 people were threatened with death, rape, or dismemberment—a small fraction. But judge Richard Sullivan said, "The fact is, these were vile threats," telling Borker, "You were terrorizing people." But when Judge Sullivan started describing some of the threats, Borker shook his head. Big mistake. According to the Times, "The judge noted the head shaking and added that this proved that he still had not grasped the gravity of his action."
In addition to four years in prison, Borker will be on probation for three years after his release and prohibited from using a computer. "You didn’t actually put a knife to someone’s throat, but you got the satisfaction that they felt you would,” Sullivan told Borker before slamming the gavel down, which must also be pretty damn satisfying.
