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[registrars] IP attorney press release DOJ
- To: registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Registrars@xxxxxxxxx
- Subject: [registrars] IP attorney press release DOJ
- From: "DomainRegistry.com Inc. - Larry Erlich" <erlich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:02:21 -0400
- Sender: owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- User-agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 (Macintosh/20061025)
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/
http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=14827
A Las Vegas man was charged in federal court today with wire fraud for
impersonating an intellectual property lawyer and threatening lawsuits
against the owners of Internet domain names.
David Dominic Scali, 28, agreed to plead guilty to the wire fraud charge
in a plea agreement also filed today in United States District Court in
Los Angeles.
Scali is charged with registering an e-mail account under an alias and
then sending e-mails in which he claimed to be the intellectual property
lawyer. In the e-mails, which were sent in late June and early July of
2006, Scali threatened to file $100,000 trademark infringement lawsuits
against the owners of various Internet website names unless they gave up
their domain name registrations within two days. In some of the e-mails,
Scali, using the lawyer's identity, also claimed to be affiliated with a
New York law firm. The wire fraud count in the criminal information
filed this morning concerns a victim who surrendered an Internet domain
name very similar to www.citysearch.com.
In his plea agreement, Scali admitted that he intended to obtain these
domain name registrations for his own personal financial gain.
Scali will be summoned to appear for an arraignment in federal court in
Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
The wire fraud charge carries a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years
in federal prison. The plea agreement contemplates a sentence ranging
from probation to six months in custody, but the sentencing judge will
make the final decision as to what Scali’s sentence will receive.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney Wesley L. Hsu
Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section
(213) 894-3045
.....................................................................
Larry Erlich
http://www.DomainRegistry.com
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DomainRegistry.com Inc.
ICANN Accredited Registrar * Since 1996
215-244-6700
erlich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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