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

[Frank Habicht]

Hi Ronald,

I found this:
https://afrinic.net/become-member
- under "3. Type of Resource Membership" is some explanation.
LIRs provide internet services to other entities, and give IP addresses
to those other entities to use on their devices.

"EU" - end user organisations do not give IPs or internet services to
other organisations ("customers"). practically any corporate entity
(that's not an ISP) should fall under this.
Universities - should likely mostly be "EU", but I know already two in
Tanzania alone that are currently listed as LIR...
Research Networks on the other hand should surely be LIRs - giving IPs
to universities.

"PA" vs "PI"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provider-aggregatable_address_space
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provider-independent_address_space
https://afrinic.net/support/resource-members/what-is-an-allocation-or-pa-provider-aggregatable-ip-space
https://www.ripe.net/participate/member-support/copy_of_faqs/isp-related-questions/pa-pi

you won't see a difference out on the real Internet and in BGP.

generally, for PI space the Org of the user is the Org having the IP
from the RIR.
for PA space: the Org of the user (or the individual) is a customer of
the LIR (read: ISP) who got the IPs from the RIR.

a new member declares to AfriNIC "I'm an ISP" - they can justify IPs by
saying they will use it to provide Internet services to customers.
AfriNIC is known to ask for an ISP license to get convinced.
If a new university AfriNIC member says "I'm not going to give Internet
services to external organisations", they should become an EU-PI.

There are different "defaults" for the blocks sizes, but if justified,
more than the default is an option. At least when we have enough IPs.

Now an observation I just made:
from Feb 2007 until May 2014 "ORG-IA41-AFRINIC" was an LIR!
and a change from LIR to "MEMBER-ONLY" (at 2014-05-26 13:15) should have
come with removal of all resources, I believe.

Regards,
Frank


On 20/08/2020 03:42, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:

> 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.

> 

> 

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