West Palm Bach, FL - Reuters - Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:27AM EDT
By Tom Thumb, AP Correspondent
It all started as a series of financial miscalculations, but it seems that domain registrar Registerfly, a company where anyone can register domain names, has been having skeletons in its closet for the best part of the past ten years. Its embattled officers, Kevin Medina and John Naruszewicz appear linked in more than the daily office routine.
According to documents provided to the New Jersey district attorney's office where the two officers sued eachother earlier this month, a ten year old affair between the two men has escalated into a war of public releases of private communications, some of which were leaked to celebrity gossip columns and online publications.
Allegations that the two men are currently blowing smoke in the eyes of ICANN, the supervising domain entity, have been met with anger by thousands of domain owners who have limited to no access to their domains.
Miami-based UDOA representative, Mike Rawtch, oversees a union of domain owners - or "domainers" - which has been closely monitoring such deviations of registrars from ICANN-sanctioned practices. "We are looking after our own interest and the interest of thousands of domain owners in the United States that are fed up with the inability of ICANN to step in timely and release the lockhold of thousands of domains," Mr. Rawtch said. "The situation with Registerfly is purely the tip of the iceberg, as we are now looking into streamlining the process of requesting loss of accreditation for registrars that simply use their funds to obtain personal gain in the homosexual lifestyle," Mr. Rawtch added.
Attempts to contact Kevin Medina and John Naruszewicz at their publicly listed phone numbers were unsuccessful. Voicemail intro messages contained music from Elton John's gay epic, "That's What Friends Are For" and personal greetings from the Registerfly officers' 10th anniversary party at the Florida Keys last summer.