There are 2 big problems with Snap's proposed rebate:
1) It assumes that Nelson used only 1 fake account. If he used more than one account (why wouldn't he?) then the proposed refund formula STILL cheats customers. Every bidder at every auction now needs to be validated back to the start od Snapnames.
2) Some of Halvarez's domains where he WON the auction were sold to others, many to iReit. Those funds need to be handed back to the 'real' winner of those auctions.
3) Any parking income needs to be handed back to the 'real' winner of those auctions.
We should all pay attention to the above points because, quite frankly, this settlement is an attempt to screw us all over again.
Judging by this thread and the various articles that have popped up, the vast majority of you have swallowed the spin that Brady used only ONE identity. Think about that for a minute: this super-smart guy, a skilled engineer with a deep understanding of systems, redundancy and the eternal need for back-ups and alternatives ... he is supposed to have used only ONE identity throughout all those years? He didn't even experiment with multiple accounts when deliberately driving bidders up towards their "secret" maximums?
The only reason any of this has become public is that Oversee want to claw back the 25 million they (Over)paid for Snapnames. Following the disastrous loss of their biggest drop provider, Network Solutions, and a drastic downturn in the economy, this massively over-leveraged, shopaholic corporation is running scared of the aggressive private equity firms who poured hundreds of millions into its pre-crunch buying spree.
The fact that they can publicly pin this on Brady - pretty much the founder of Snapnames, the brains behind the system and one of the main beneficiaries of the sale - puts them in a perfect position to cry foul and they probably will get most of their money back.
That is why they aren't simply sweeping this under the carpet, because the cost of getting their $25m refunded is to take a much smaller hit in the form of rebates to the victims of Nelson.
By claiming that Brady only used ONE account, however, they get away with refunding the absolute minimum possible while still managing to get their FULL refund of $25m + interest + damages from the Snapnames sellers.
This WILL happen, just watch.
Like Accro, I too wrote to Snapnames as soon as I heard about this and noticed that they have hidden my account's record of the years when he was supposedly most active. I received the same canned response, the most important point of which was that, no, they would not send me those records, but that the specialists they hired would have a look and let me know if they owed me anything.
Here's my big, fat problem with that: these consultants will be operating under very specific guidelines, to ONLY act upon auctions in which Halvarez made the second-last bid. Their "forensic" investigation will in no way address the issue of whether Nelson operated other accounts (which, obviously, he would have), will not check to see if other accounts were given the alleged refunds he received for Halvarez, will not examine the extent to which his actions deliberately generated interest among other bidders, with the net result of inflating prices paids even when he was not the second-last bidder, will not do anything other than report back on the small percentage of auctions that this one account happened to be the second-last bidder. Not only do we have to trust their honesty, we also have to trust that the overworked, underpaid temp staff they hire to spend countless hours trawling through boring lists will not make any mistakes, will not simply skip over that $x,xxx nightmare battle you had with Halverez two years ago, because we are NOT ALLOWED to examine these records ourselves ... even though they have them, even though they are giving a third party access to them and invading our privacy without our permission.
The limitations of the instructions that these "independent" investigators will be operating under are plainly there, for all to see, in the cleverly-worded email they sent to each of you, and which was so warmly welcomed by those of you who didn't understand what they were actually saying.
The proof that their claims of transparency are, essentially, bollox, is made clear by that fact that we, their valued customers, are being denied the right to see our records for the most important years, which suspiciously disappeared from our accounts a couple of months before they, allegedly, knew anything about Nelsons actions. Bull$hit.
Any company that genuinely had honest intentions would rush to give us access to ALL our records. The reason they will not is that they know, they are 100% certain, that those records would reveal that Brady was using dozens of accounts and participating in far, far more auctions than the 5% that they are willing to admit to.
Make no mistake - they are spinning this as expertly as they can and have zero interest in treating us fairly, any refund you get merely be a side-effect of the much bigger game they are playing, and it will be a fraction of what they have actually stolen from you.
Even John Grisham couldn't come up with a more compelling example of a class action waiting to drop.
