Originally employed by Wired Country, Battles transferred to Compass when the ISP purchased the broadband provider last year, according to Karim Hussona, chief executive of Compass Communications

Hussona also confirms that complaints have been filed over the spamming and that Battles was reprimanded for it. However, Hussona isn't aware of the activities in the US where Battles earned a record in the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO). Spamming is not something Compass condones, he says, and he will investigate the matter further.

The US-based Battles is known as a prolific and aggressive spammer. In April 2003, an organization named Emarketersamerica.org sued the UK-based Spamhaus, individual anti-spam activists and the Spam Early Warning System (SPEWS) operators. Steve Linford, who founded Spamhaus, said at the time that the people behind Emarketersamerica.org were the Boca Raton, Florida-based gang of spammers including Eddie Marin and Brendan Battles.

However, in September the same year, Emarketersamerica.org withdrew the lawsuit and was left with a bill for the legal costs of the litigation.

Investigative journalist Brian McWilliams covered the activities of the U.S. Brendan Battles in his 'Spam Kings' book. McWilliams says the U.S.-based Battles reportedly sent out up to 50 million spam messages per day, hawking things like subliminal weight loss tapes.