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Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

wsj.com

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Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#61

Post by ganoushoreilly »

londons_explore wrote: post #8
masayoshis_son wrote: post #7

The writing is quite confusing in trying to explain things but the gist of it appears to be that the person in question (1) applied for IP addresses through numerous companies created just for this purpose in order to bypass ARIN's restriction on the number of addresses it was willing to allocate to a single entity, and (2) made the obtained IP address ranges available to serve as VPN endpoints, so that "huge amount…

A prosecution seems a bit over the top for this... Setting up multiple companies to meet some rule isnt against said rule. And anyway, it's a company policy not the law.

These companies often times were bought shelf companies with history so as to have credibility. The goal was selling up blocks to prohibited locations and enabling spamming. This guy spent a lot of time in Tunisia with spam Kong’s and accepted up front money to build infrastructure.

The publicly discussed components here are but a small piece of a complex and sloppily run scam organization.

Look up the judgements under these businesses over the years at various web hosts. These companies would enter long contracts and eventually stop paying.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#62

Post by ganoushoreilly »

londons_explore wrote: post #9
wut42 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why pursue him? What he's done has been done by many others since years.

I'd guess he pissed off some important people... If this prosecution doesn't succeed, you can bet every tax return of his for the last 20 years will suddenly be randomly checked, and he'll be prosecuted for claiming a Starbucks coffee as an expense during a business meeting when he actually took half the coffee away after the meeting making it not an allowable expense, and therefore technically fraud.

He picked the fight foolishly by being greedy. He lived well beyond his means too and owes a lot of money to people you don’t want to owe.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#63

Post by ganoushoreilly »

masayoshis_son wrote: post #11
wut42 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why pursue him? What he's done has been done by many others since years.

That's what I've been thinking as well. Creating "shell companies" (aka "Special Purpose Entities/Vehicles") is not illegal per se. Perhaps he violated the terms and conditions of his contract with ARIN and should have had the assignments cancelled but where does the criminality come in?

He flat out created new people and signed things via notary with fake names. He then tried to sell blocks to prohibited persons in prohibited regions.

Pull down the whole court doc, it’s pretty clear his intentions.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#64

Post by empath75 »

Mirioron wrote: post #33
tptacek wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No? The use of deception to obtain something of value that would not otherwise be given to you is the literal, legal definition of fraud?

So, where does that leave advertising? The entire purpose of advertising is to get somebody to spend money on a product they otherwise wouldn't have.

People get sued for false advertising al the time. I feel like people on hacker news are continuously surprised to discover that laws exist and are enforced.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#65

Post by naniwaduni »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #59
jacquesm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ICANN is utterly dysfunctional, see .org debacle.

The .org debacle is evidence that ICANN is corrupt , not dysfunctional. That's an important distinction.

It's both. You could say that the .org debacle more strongly indicates corruption than dysfunction, but it's definitely both with strong ties between them.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#66

Post by Wowfunhappy »

naniwaduni wrote: post #65
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The .org debacle is evidence that ICANN is corrupt , not dysfunctional. That's an important distinction.

It's both. You could say that the .org debacle more strongly indicates corruption than dysfunction, but it's definitely both with strong ties between them.

How is it both?

They knew exactly what they were doing.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#67

Post by naniwaduni »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #66
naniwaduni wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both. You could say that the .org debacle more strongly indicates corruption than dysfunction, but it's definitely both with strong ties between them.

How is it both? They knew exactly what they were doing.

The fact that they knew exactly what they were doing does not contradict that what they were doing is dysfunctional. If anything, it is the dysfunction.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#68

Post by pjmorris »

blitmap wrote: post #54
jacquesm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shell companies are not normally used for structuring. That's a different matter entirely. A shell company is usually a holding company, not a company created in order to deceive or to bypass a hard cap on some scarce resource.

Just FYI for others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring I didn't know there was a formal term for this. Splitting up money transfers to avoid detection of large sums moving around.

Sounds like packet switching.

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#69

Post by smnrchrds »

commandersaki wrote: post #15
londons_explore wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A prosecution seems a bit over the top for this... Setting up multiple companies to meet some rule isnt against said rule. And anyway, it's a company policy not the law.

It was done to deceive ARIN which is why it is being considered wire fraud.

So if I sign up for a service with different email addresses to use the 2-week free trial over and over, I will be guilty of wire fraud?

Re: Prosecutors allege Micfo obtained 800k IPv4 addresses illegally

#70

Post by dlgeek »

smnrchrds wrote: post #69
commandersaki wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was done to deceive ARIN which is why it is being considered wire fraud.

So if I sign up for a service with different email addresses to use the 2-week free trial over and over, I will be guilty of wire fraud?

Yes, and they'd probably throw a CFAA violation in there too.
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