Estdomains makes a countermove

Monday

According to several online reports, registrar EstDomains seemed like a haven for cyber criminals who wanted to register Web sites that supported a range of criminal activity. Last week, this seemed to come to an end as ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) decided to revoke Estdomains right to process new domain names.

The basis for this de-accredition was subsection 5.3.3 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), which states that if “Any officer or director of Registrar is convicted of a felony or of a misdemeanor related to financial activities, or is judged by a court to have committed fraud or breach of fiduciary duty, or is the subject of a judicial determination that ICANN deems as the substantive equivalent of any of these; provided, such officer or director is not removed in such circumstances.”

The reason being was CEO Vladimir Tsastsin being convicted in February of credit card fraud, document forgery and other cyber crime charges.

For a moment, it seemed that internet was going to be a safer place. But today, Estdomains made a countermove and domain registrar EstDomains might remain an accredited domain registrar after all.

From the sunbeltblog:

Yesterday Domain Name Wire reported that EstDomains received a notice of termination from Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN cited the conviction of EstDomains’ president Vladimir Tsastsin for credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery in February as the reason for the termination.
The company claims that Tsastsin resigned his position back in June, so the reasoning for ICANN’s termination is invalid. ICANN has issued a stay while it considers the matter. EstDomains will retain its accredited status during review.
More here.
You can see Estdomains’ request to ICANN here.