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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 23 2020, @07:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it-quacks-like-a-duck dept.

Ex-boss of ICANN shifts from 'advisor' to co-CEO of private equity biz that tried to buy .org for $1bn+:

In the past week, the website of Ethos Capital, the private equity firm that offered $1.13bn to take control of the popular .org registry, was updated to list ex-ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade as its joint head.

The change is significant because it was Chehade's involvement in the attempted .org purchase that first alerted internet users that the deal deserved closer scrutiny.

The sale was ultimately vetoed several months later by ICANN, but only after the Attorney General of California got involved and sent a last-minute letter to LA-based ICANN telling it not to approve the deal in part due to the "lack of transparency" on Ethos Capital.

Part of that lack of transparency was who would actually own the .org registry after the sale: behind Ethos was a complex structure of no less than four shell companies that were all registered on the same day in Delaware with the prefix "Purpose Domains." Ethos Capital refused to divulge who all the directors of those companies actually were despite repeat requests, including from ICANN, which had the power to refuse the sale.

Chehade's close link to the proposed sale was only noticed because he had registered Ethos Capital's .org domain name, EthosCapital.org, under his own name on May 7, 2019. The company Ethos Capital LLC was registered in Delaware one week later, on May 14, 2019.

Acting merely as "advisor" until now allowed plausible deniability when pointed questions were made to The Internet Society and PIR (Public Interest Registry) concerning Ethos Capital.

Hmmmm 🤔


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  • (Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:30AM (3 children)

    by sonamchauhan (6546) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:30AM (#1025343)

    ISOC membership, at about USD 100/yr, is too expensive for normal internet users. My hope is membership in ISOC chapters gets cheaper, so more normal people (as opposed to telecom execs) get voted in and put a real end to this and similar stunts.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @09:46AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @09:46AM (#1025350)

    why the hell would it matter, anyway?
    the important bit is to have IPs available, we can certainly implement a replacement to DNS that completely ignores the idiots at ICANN or whatever the UN will create in place of it.
    all that's needed is a bit of motivation, and right now there's still no reason to do it.
    but it can easily be done if needed.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:35PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:35PM (#1025526)

      And where would your alternative happen to fall on Zooko's triangle?

    • (Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Friday July 24 2020, @04:35AM

      by sonamchauhan (6546) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 24 2020, @04:35AM (#1025665)

      Because normal people use DNS. ISOC nominally owns PIR which controls DNS resolution for .org.

      Redcross.org and antislavery.org and millions of other charities paying billions to private equity owners fortunate enough to pocket 'Public Interest Registry' (PIR) [thenew.org] on favorable terms, translates to billions of dollars less spent helping real people around the world.