Ronald, Don't mind the sock puppets and trolls, like my good friend Nishal indicated after all its often hard to dispute facts because fact are facts.
Noah Your apparent sidekick :-) On Fri, 1 Jan 2021, 04:57 Ronald F. Guilmette, <[email protected]> wrote: > I am pleased to inform you all that there has been at least some minimal > progress with respect to AFRINIC wrestling back control of many or most > of the legacy IPv4 blocks that were effectively stolen from their > rightful owners by Mr. Cohen, Mr. Uerlings, and others. > > Quietly, and without any public fanfare, it appears that AFRINIC staff, > since around December 19th, have been adding annotations to the WHOIS > records of many of these stolen blocks to indicate AFRINIC's recognition > that these blocks were in fact stolen. > > For example, the WHOIS record for the 196.16.0.0/14 block which was stolen > from the South African national government's in-house IT arm... formerly > called "Infoplan" and long ago renamed to "SITA"... now contains the > following annotations: > > remarks: ============REMARK=================== > remarks: The custodianship of this IP prefix is presently > remarks: deemed to be in dispute. Consequently, > remarks: no change request pertaining to this particular > remarks: prefix will be entertained by AFRINIC until the > remarks: issue is finally resolved between the disputants > remarks: themselves or by a competent authority. > remarks: Further, whilst the current holder of the said prefix > remarks: continues to hold same, AFRINIC shall bear no > remarks: responsibility whatsoever in relation thereto and > remarks: disputants are encouraged to resolve the said > remarks: dispute expeditiously. > remarks: ============REMARK==================== > > The AFRINIC WHOIS history of this block is shown here: > > https://pastebin.com/raw/m0LVuppe > > As anyone can clearly see, the block was originally assigned to "Infoplan" > in South Africa, even in the AFRINIC records which, in the case of this > specific block, have been partially "disappeared" via a process that > AFRINIC has yet to explain. > > Additional records relating to this same block, and which go back even > further in time... all the way back to January 28, 1994... are readily > available from ARIN's "WhoWas" historical data service. These even > earlier historical records also confirm 100% that this block was formally > assigned to Infoplan (now named SITA) in January, 1994. > > As anyone can also see from the AFRINIC historical records for this block, > the contact mailing address for this block was changed, on or about > 2015-01-23, to be an address in the Seychelles Islands. So you have to > ask yourself: Why would an entity that is part of the South African > national government suddely relocate itself to the Seychelles Islands? > > Obviously, it wouldn't. That is nonsensical on the face of it. So what > really happened here? > > There are only two plausible possibilities: Either (a) the block was > simply > stolen, by messers Cohen, Uerlings, and Byaruhanga, via some clever and > illicit manipluation of the relevant AFRINIC WHOIS records, or else (b) > someone within the South African government received some payment in > exchange for the legitimate rights to this block... either with or without > the knowledge and consent of the South African government itself. > > Personally, I find the second possibility, (b), to be implausible, not > because I believe that South African government officials are universally > immune to a little private bribery, but only because I have personally > spoken to a number of the other parties and entities that have also and > likewise had their legacy AFRINIC IPv4 address blocks stolen out from > under them, for example, the South African commercial metals company known > as Columbus Stainless (160.115.0.0/16), and also to managers and technical > people associated with South Africa's state-owned oil company, Sasol, > which also had its 155.237.0.0/16 block "liberated" from their control, > temporarily at least, in some still-mysterious way. > > These are just two examples of the several AFRINIC legacy block holders > that have had their stuff stolen, and that I have personally spoken to > on multiple occasions. IN ALL CASES, when I was able to make contact > with the real and legitimate legacy block owners those legitimate owners > universally expressed astonishment when I informed them that they were > no longer in control of their own assigned IP address assets. Since my > initial contacts with these various victim organizations, several of them, > including the two mentioned above, as well as the City of Cape Town and > others, have moved swiftly to regain control of what was stolen from them. > > Were insiders at literally ALL of these commercial companies and > government- > owned organizations bribed to give up company assets to messers Cohen and > Uerlings? I don't think so. That notion really stretches the bounds of > credibility. > > That leaves us with possibility (a) which is just that -somehow- the WHOIS > records were illicitly manipulated in some manner, by some party, so as > to provide effective control of the blocks to messers Cohen and Uerlings, > and also to Mr. Abizeid and Mr. Mehta. > > Nonetheless, Mr. Cohen has gone to court, ostensibly to reclaim his rights > with respect to more than 20 different large AFRINIC legacy blocks, all /16 > or larger, which he claims to have legitimately paid for. > > An honest man has nothing to hide, and Mr. Cohen could clear this all up > very easily by just showing us all copies of the checks he claims to have > written in order to purchase all of these 20 or so AFRINIC legacy blocks. > > So far he seems entirely reluctant to do that. It doesn't take a genius > to figure out why. If he did show us the checks, this entire ludicrous > and convoluted theft scheme would come crashing down around him, and he > knows it. (He may have written those checks to his cohort in crime, Mr. > Uerlings or to one of Mr. Uerlings shell companies, or he may have written > the checks to Ernest, or to one of Ernest's shell companies, or he may > even have written the checks to some other and different crooked high-level > AFRINIC insider who held an even more senior position than Ernest, back in > the 201-2015 time frame, but he most certainly DID NOT write those checks > to any of the actual and legitimate legacy blocks owners.) > > Instead of just showing us his payment checks, or even the purchase > reciepts > for the IP address assets that he claims to have legitimately "bought", > Mr. Cohen has instead tried repeatedly and in every way he can think of > to simply browbeat, harass, and intimidate AFRINIC into submission. His > delusional rantings here got him banned, so now he has invented multiple > sock puppet email accounts to circumvent that ban so that he can continue > his delusional and fact-free public ranting.... as if anybody is at all > likely to believe anything that either he or his multiple sock puppets > might say at this point. > > Unfortunately for Mr. Cohen, none of his rather silly attemps to intimidate > AFRINIC are working, and none of them will work, because there are just too > many actual and independently verifiable facts on the table at this point. > But Mr. Cohen has several million reasons ($$$) to hope against hope that > he can somehow still keep his stolen stuff, so he is motivated to keep on > trying, even though literally all of the facts are against him. This > pitiful public spectacle is sad to watch, but like our Mr. Trump here in > the U.S., Mr. Cohen is in denial, and is simply having trouble emotionally > processing the fact that he has already lost. > > > Regards, > rfg > > > P.S. I suppose that whoever is administering the AFRINIC mailing lists > could be doing a somewhat better job of filtering out posting from Cohen's > various sock puppet free email accounts, but I personally don't mind if > they don't. Every time he posts to the mailing lists using one of his > sock puppet identities he simply adds to the already abundant evidence > that he thinks the rules don't apply to him, and he also adds to the > equally abundant evidence that he's not an entirely well man. > > _______________________________________________ > Community-Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss >
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