Exclusive: Micfo’s Amir Golestan receives a jail term of 5 years in imprisonment for scamming ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers), and his sentence includes the confiscation of IP address Rights as well as severe monetary fines.
Amir Golestan, 40, the CEO of the Charleston, South Carolina-based technology firm Micfo LLC, has been condemned to a term of five years in jail for wire fraud. Mr. Golestan is sentenced nearly a decade after pleading guilty to using a syndicate of fake companies to obtain more than 735,000 Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), a not-for-profit organization that supervises IP addresses issued to organizations in the United States, Canada, and parts of the Caribbean.
The Inside Story
Golestan founded Micfo in Charleston in 1999, offering website hosting and other Internet-related services. It Started from February 2014, until the federal acquisition in this case was issued in May 2019, Golestan, CEO of Micfo, established ten fraud companies known as “Channel Associates.” ARIN provided these channel collaborators with address rights to Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 addresses (IPv4).
IPv4 address is a numerical formula, allocated to each computer, connected to a computer system that communicates through the web.
ARIN is an independent corporation in the United States, Canada, and portions of the Caribbean that manages IP address rights, allocations, and migrations.
In order to get an Internet Protocol (IP) allocation from ARIN, a company must offer a need-based explanation. Because ARIN’s stock of IP addresses for IPv4 has been exhausted, there has been a rise in consumer demand, resulting in BlackMarketing, where prices for a single IPv4 address have skyrocketed.
“Corporate fraudsters often escape transparency by concealing their illicit activities via technical business practices or by working in fields unknown to the majority of individuals,” said Criminal Chief Nathan Williams, who investigated the case with Assistant United States Attorney Amy Bower.
“One of these areas is the global accessibility of internet resources. This case, on one hand, demonstrates that the FBI and US Attorney’s Office, in collaboration with other government partners, are capable of discovering sophisticated offenses and punishing business and chief offenders.” quoted an investigating officer of the FBI.
The best part is when the incident came to limelight, “I wouldn’t buy a bottle of water from this guy, let alone Web Hosting & IP addresses rights” , answered a native of South Caroline, when asked about the WireFraud committed by Golestan.
Golestan constructed the false associate companies which included fabricating web pages and fake staff, in order to make the firms appear authentic and adjust ARIN’s standards for IPv4 address distribution.
Golestan obtained from ARIN permission to have access to a vast number of IPv4 addresses valued at millions of usd by using fake corporations. Golestan began selling IPv4 address rights for several million dollars after unlawfully obtaining them.
Golestan collected around $3.5 million as a consequence of his fraudulent plot, with another $6.2 million in custody that would have gone to Golestan had he never been exposed. Despite the fact that Golestan and his firm first went to proceedings, both Micfo and Golestan confessed guilty to all twenty charges of online theft.
WayForward
Lastly, ARIN is extremely thankful for the diligent efforts made by the United States Attorney’s Office in South Carolina and the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) in proving Mr. Golestan and Micfo are responsible for the nuanced fraud committed against ARIN. Mr. Golestan’s fraud compromised the public image of ARIN and the trust of thousands of Web Users.
It is sincerely believed that this judgment will serve as an immediate warning to any other individuals planning scams to grab Internet assets unlawfully.
