[Community-Discuss] Ongoing thefts of AFRINIC Legacy Resources -- Ongoing collusion?

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <A8508F60-2AB5-4907-87C5-3BA71074A6FB at delong.com>, 
Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:


>I would suggest instead that the following is a superior alternative:

>(i) Membership shall be open to any person or organization which has a

>nexus in the AFRINIC service region and is a user of Internet Number

>Resources.


Excuse me for interrupting, but during my research last year I was
informed that there are different categories of AFRINIC "membership",
and that not all of these entail the actual use of number resources.

In partcular, I was informed that a designation of MEMBER-ONLY in the
org-type: field of an ORG indicated something like a United Nations
"observer status" membership.

At present, the data base contains a number of different org-type:
designators, which I have just tabulated as follows:

 1871 org-type:       LIR
  632 org-type:       EU-PI
   94 org-type:       EU-AS
   84 org-type:       MEMBER-ONLY
   10 org-type:       OTHER
    8 org-type:       REGISTERED-MEMBER
    6 org-type:       ASSOCIATE-MEMBER
    5 org-type:       RIR
    1 org-type:       other
    1 org-type:       IANA
    1 org-type:       NON-REGISTRY

Google as I might, I have been unable to find any listing or any online
documentation providing any information whatsoever about any of these
AFRINIC org-types.

Could some kind soul please describe for me the significance of each one?

I am especially interested in know what the heck an "EU-PI" organization is,
not least because that seems to be the type asosciated with ORG-IA41-AFRINIC
which is itself the owner of the valuable 196.16.0.0/14 block, which was
and is provably stolen.  (And it *remains* stolen, even more than 7 months
after both the AFRINIC Board and AFRINIC management should have become
well and truly aware of its stolen status.)

Am I correct that MEMBER-ONLY organizations pay no annual dues or fees to
AFRINIC?  Are EU-PI organzations likewise exempt from all dues and fees?
If so, what is the justification for that?  If not, then in the space of
time since this ORG was mysteriously changed from a MEMBER-ONLY to an
EU-PI org[1], has this shadowy and mysterious "offshore" organization
paid any dues or fees to AFRINIC?  And if so, what bank acount(s) did
those payments come from and who signed those checks?

[1] The org-type of this specific org was changed on 2020-05-07 by SOME
UNIDENTIFIED AFRINIC STAFF MEMBER.  It is not at all clear who did that,
or why, but apparently staff have been given permission to "imrpovise"
when it comes to ongoing fraud.

To be blunt, I am frankly appalled that all of you folks in the AFRINIC
region seem to be carrying on with "business as usual" when it is so
abundantly self-evident that both AFRINIC management and the AFRINIC
board are so clearly still covering up for thefts and for thieves.

What is the motivation for them trying to sweep these things under the
carpet still, and to this day?  And who else within the organization
did Ernest Byaruhanga implicate when he was confronted, by management
and the board, with the hard evidence of his criminal activities at
the meeting in Luanda?

Am I really the only one who wants to know who the OTHER AFRINIC insider
crooks are?

The near utter lack of curiosity, within this region, about what really
went on, behind the scenes, with all of the now well-documented thefts,
and about who else was involved, is really quite breathtaking.  Have the
dues paying members of AFRINIC just become so accustomed to graft and
corruption that nobody even bothers to ask any questions about it, even
when it is happening right out in the open?

I want to be crystal clear about this.  It isn't just the 196.16.0.0/14
block that remains stolen. BY NO MEANS!  I have just now re-checked all
of the stolen legacy blocks that Jan Vermeulen and I found and reported
as stolen last year (2019).  As you can all see in the table below, the
overwehlming majority of those blocks AND their associated ORG identities
are still stolen/compromised to this day, and even as we speak, and anybody
with half a brain... which apparent excludes the whole of the AFRINIC
staff... can easily see that, simply by looking in detail at the various
contact email addresses and phone numbers for each relevant ORG.

In more than seven and a half months now, neither AFRINIC management nor
AFRINIC staff have made any effort whatsoever to clean up the criminal and
corrupt modifications that were made to the person: contact records
associated with any of the several legacy blocks listed below, all of
these being ones that Jan Vermeulen and myself meticulously researched
and called out as being stolen way back in September and December of last
year (2019).

block		org
-------------------------------------
163.198.0.0/16	ORG-AA79-AFRINIC
164.88.0.0/16	ORG-AHL1-AFRINIC
165.3.0.0/16	-none-
165.4.0.0/16	-none-  ***
168.80.0.0/15	ORG-AISL1-AFRINIC
196.16.0.0/14	ORG-IA41-AFRINIC
155.159.0.0/16	ORG-SCS1-AFRINIC
163.197.0.0/16	ORG-AA78-AFRINIC
164.155.0.0/16	ORG-SL72-AFRINIC
196.15.64.0/18	ORG-ZZ21-AFRINIC
160.121.0.0/16	ORG-MPL1-AFRINIC
155.235.0.0/16	ORG-AM1-AFRINIC
196.10.61.0/24	ORG-ZZ154-AFRINIC
196.10.62.0/23	ORG-ZZ154-AFRINIC
196.10.64.0/19	ORG-ZZ154-AFRINIC
160.116.0.0/16	ORG-ACSL2-AFRINIC
168.206.0.0/16	ORG-TAEB1-AFRINIC

Th result of this abject and near total failure of both AFRINIC management
and AFRINIC staff to simply do their jobs is that Mr. Cohen and his criminal
cohorts are *still* and to this day in control all of all the above blocks.

Given that fact, we all really ought to stop and wonder:  What is Mr. Cohen
(alleggedly) suing AFRINIC for?  AFRINIC has apparently done absolutely
nothing to take back *any* of the many legacy block he stole.  And it
must be noted also that Mr. cohden almost cetainly pulled off all of these
legacy block thefts with the substantial and direct assistance of one or
more crooked AFRINIC insiders who have yet to be publicly identified.

Given that AFRINIC has actually *failed* to take back any of the stuff
that Mr. Cohen stole, what basis then does Mr. Cohen have for being in
any way unhappy with AFRINIC?  If anything, the abundant INaction of
AFRINIC management and staff, over lo these many months, have left Mr.
Cohen free to profit handsomely from his massive cache of stolen goods,
month after month after month, and apparently without interruption.

Mr. Cohen should be sending AFRINIC management & staff kisses, not lawsuits!

The only way any of this makes sense is if this alleged "lawsuit", by
Mr. Cohen and against AFRINIC, is really just a pretense and a charade,
i.e. just some sort of a show, for external consumption only, intended
to give the -impression- of conflict while actually working to obscure
the fact that AFRINIC management and staff have spent the past 7+ months
doing absolutely nothing that would in any way fetter or interfere with
Mr. Cohen's ongoing criminal operations.  Quite this opposite, in fact!
If anything, AFRINIC's inaction has effectively served to *protect* Mr.
Cohen's ongoing criminal enterprise, which he has built on the backs of
blatantly stolen AFRINIC legacy assets.

So what is Mr. Cohen suing about? He has no basis to sue over -anything-,
since AFRINIC management have generously allowed him to keep all of his
stolen booty.

Apparently, we mere mortals are of too lowly a caste to be given a clear
answer to the question:  What is Mr. Cohen suing about?

The AFRINIC Board and management have apparently decided, in their infinite
wisdom, that anything and everything relating to this alleged lawsuit shall
be treated as some sort of Big Secret, and thus, the AFRINIC Board and
management have decided to HIDE the relevant legal documents from the
public, from the unwashed masses, and also from all dues-paying AFRINIC
members, even though they are all quite clearly parties to this lawsuit
also.

There is no legal requirement that would force the AFRINIC Board to impose
this total "blackout" secrecy, of  course, since by definition, AFRINIC is
a membership-based organization, and thus, all members are effectively
being sued together by Mr. Cohen, and thus all members thus have a right
to see all of the relevant legal filings that have been filed against them.

So why is the Board hiding the legal filings from the membership?  What is
is that they don't want the membership to know?  Is Mr. Cohen alleging,
in his legal papers... as he has done elswhere and in public... that he
"bought" all of his millions of dollars worth of stolen IPv4 space from
some unnamed individual?  And has he named that individual in his lawsuit
filing?  And is that individual yet a *second* crooked AFRINIC insider
(in addition to Ernest) who the Board and management are now protecting
from embarassing public exposure?

It's certainly clear that Mr. Cohen has *some* sort of leverage which has
been keeping AFRINIC management and staff from taking any meaningful action
to un-do his blatant thefts for more than seven months now.  Could that
leverage be that his legal filings expose the name of a second high-level
crooked AFRINIC insider?  Has Mr. Cohen been blackmailing the AFRINIC
Board, or AFRINIC management, threatening to reveal the names of other
and additional crooked AFRINIC insiders all this time?

Not that any of this even matters.  The bottom line is that for months
on end now, the available evidence clearly indicates that AFRINIC 
management and staff have been studiously *avoiding* taking control
back from Mr. Cohen of any of his many stolen legacy blocks *and*
the AFRINIC Board is now playing hide-and-seek with the legal filings
in this alleged lawsuit, refusing to even show them to the dues-paying
members.  The net effects of these actions and inactions is that AFRINIC
is effectively working *with* Mr. Cohen, insuring that he can continue
to use his stolen IPv4 assets and also insuring that whatever secrets
are contained in his legal filings are kept carefully under lock and key
and away from even the due-paying members who are also, by implication,
themselves targets of Mr. Cohen's lawsuit.

One does not have to be either an Einstein or a Sherlock Holmes to see
that there is some REALLY dodgy stuff going on here.  Anybody with half
a brain who just asks the obvious questions can see that.

But I guess this is the African way, i.e. corruption and back-room dealing
are apparently the accepted norm, even after a senior member of AFRINIC
staff (i.e. Mr. Ernest) was caught red handed with his fingers in the till.

Still, I can at least hope that the dues-paying members will at least be
clear about one thing:

Mr. Cohen is *still* making money, hand over fist, off of his prized
collection of stolen AFRINIC legacy blocks, even as we speak.  And as far
as I can tell, neither the AFRINIC Board, nor AFRINIC management, nor
AFRINIC staff have lifted a finger, in over seven months now, to do a
single damn thing about that.  And worse yet, when I have tried to make
reasonable inquiries about these ongoing thefts, both AFRINIC management
and AFRINIC staff have utterly stonewalled me, just as they are also
doing now to the membership, i.e. by holding on very tightly to the
"secret" lawsuit that Mr. Cohen has allegedly filed against AFRINIC.

If the membership is just going to allow this kind of crooked activity
to go on and on and on, and never demand answers from management or the
Board, then I guess that Africans really are, as Mr.  Adiel Akplogan
so eloquently put it, some years ago, "bird brains" and very easily
duped and defrauded.


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  To anyone who may be tempted to say that I am just some sort of
a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist, and that I have no basis for asserting
any the possibilities that I have outlined above, I would like to just
remind them that this is also what was said about me back in 2016 and
2017 when I first desperately tried to get SOMEONE, i.e. ANYONE in the
AFRINIC Board, or AFRINIC management, or AFRINIC staff, or in the entire
AFRINIC community to sit up and take notice of what was then and what
still is a huge theft of AFRINIC resources, all enabled, quite clearly,
by *multiple* crooked AFRINIC insiders.

So go ahead!  Call me a wlid-eyed conspiracy theorist!  I don't really
care.  At this point I will be more than happy to stack up *my* reputation
for honesty, integrity, and straight dealing against that of the AFRINIC
Board and management and staff any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Unlike them, I don't have any reason to lie or to obfuscate or to try to
hide the truth.  And I have a WAY better track record of finding and
exposing the truth than they do.


P.P.S.  I hope that I am also not the only one who has noticed that
absolutely -zero- information has been available from either AFRINIC
or from the Mauritian police regarding any efforts to bring Ernest
Byaruhanga to the bar of justice, to answer for his confessed crimes.

Again, I guess that this also is just the African way.  A corrupt official
steals millions, is dismissed, and everyone just rolls over and goes back
to sleep... until the next time.  That's how easy it is to defraud "bird
brains".

Africans are welcome to have as much corruption as you all are willing
to tolerate.  And apparently, you are willing to tolerate a lot.