[Community-Discuss] The Looting of AFRINIC

[JORDI PALET MARTINEZ]

Hi Sunday, all,

 

I’ve been in “internal conflict” myself, since I read the article. Let me tell why.

 

I met Ernest the first time around 2005, if I recall correctly. My first AFRINIC meeting was AFRINIC-2 in Maputo, Mozambique, and shortly after, during an ITU meeting in Geneva, Adiel asked me if I could contribute to the AFRINIC community coming to the next meetings and joining Ernest in his trips to do the Registration Services training so I do IPv6 trainings.

 

Sunday for sure can remember that when going for a training to Lagos, I was deported back to my country, because a mess created by the Madrid Nigerian consulate and thanks to the quick reaction from Sunday, I could resolve that on the next day and flight again to do the training.

 

My immediate response was, of course, I will be very happy doing that, and since them I lost tract in how many African countries, I’ve been doing those trainings and how many thousands of brothers have been able to take advantage of that.

 

The relevance of that is clear. I’d a close relation with Ernest (as well as with many other staff from all the RIRs). Traveling so much together, you get to know people, and we are talking here about almost 15 years. Of course, you may get a wrong impression, we all may have a hidden face. As humans, we all have positive and negative things. But I’m really shocked, I still resist to believe it.

 

I also believe that he is a smart guy. So, put yourself in the position of a smart guy that want to do something bad. Do you think you will use your own name for registering companies, or instead you will bribe someone,  may be a friend (but not family) to avoid your family name to appear in any documents? I feel this is really silly and non-understandable. So maybe somebody used him, which doesn’t mean he is still guilty “in vigilando” because he trusted anyone else, or something similar.

 

Do we believe in “presumption of innocence”? I do, despite documents. If you don’t know the complete background, documents may not be enough.

 

So, I will like to request to Ernest, to provide a clear explanation, and may be publicly recognize what (if any) have been his mistakes and involvement an all this.

 

Note that I’m not here defending anyone. I’ve no any personal interest. My only interest is to know the *real true* and I’m sure everybody agrees on that.

 

Note also that I’ve no doubts that the documents may be authentic, so no doubt about the good work and investigation done by Ronald and very thankful for that.

 

Regards,

Jordi

@jordipalet

 

 

 

El 5/12/19 20:02, "Sunday Folayan" <sfolayan at gmail.com> escribió:

 

It is a shame that the system was exploited. I did not in anyway suggest that the malfeasance be ignored, or that we should focus only on legacy space.

The community has been informed that there is already some internal investigations ongoing. We should give AFRINIC the time to get things done. I equally expect that if criminal actions and intentions are established, the law should take its course and people should stand accountable for their deeds.

I query the suitability of a system, where existing or moribund organizations' IP resources are stolen/hijacked/leased for upwards of 7 years, and it took this level of cross-border investigations to discover the manipulations. If the resources are indeed not needed or in active use, why would or should they not have been returned to the Registry for the common good?

For those whose resources were stolen or hijacked, I expect their legal department will be pursuing the hijackers/traders/users with gusto by now.

While appreciating the whistle blower(s) for a job well done on behalf of the entire community, Instead of running a mob-justice system here, with the assurance that justice will be served, the community should rather apply its mind on how to make sure that IP resources are available for developing the continent. That will be a better use of our time and intellect.

Sunday. 

 

On 05/12/2019 1:46 PM, Mike Silber wrote:

Be that as it may - that seems to ignore the fact that there appears to have been significant malfeasance regarding non-legacy space. 

 

I just want to ensure that we maintain a balanced view of the problem and not deflect it to focus only on the legacy space issue.

 

It terms of priorities - it would make sense to me to focus on how space that should have been subject to the RSA has been mis-appropriated and then turn to the more difficult question of legacy space. If the current processes are open to abuse, then moving legacy space under those processes may not have the desired outcome. 

 

Mike



On 5 Dec 2019, at 14:27, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:

 

Completely agree with Sunday.

Mark.

On 5/Dec/19 13:02, Sunday Folayan wrote:

Isn't it time to address Legacy space issues, specifically ancient squatters on spaces meant to develop the Internet in Africa, AfriNIC Services and bringing legacy spaces under some form of RSA? 

I urge the community to think beyond the sensation and let us see how to help and empower the people doing useful work for Africa. 

Thanks. 

Sunday. 

On 04/12/2019 6:23 PM, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote: 


I hope you all will take the time to read and think about the following 
news story. 

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/330379-how-internet-resources-worth-r800-million-were-stolen-and-sold-on-the-black-market.html 
  I will have more to say about this in due course.  For the moment, I only 
wish to say that the investigation undertaken by myself and Jan Vermeulen 
is ongoing, and that many others are provably involved. 
    Regards, 
rfg 


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