[Community-Discuss] South Africa ISPA Statement on Recent AFRINIC developments

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <D593119A-09CF-4259-A67D-DAA1D1B132F2 at delong.com>, 
Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:


>Under such a circumstance, with so many customers and the company's

>reputation on the

>line, the decision was made (well above my pay grade) that it was

>necessary to pursue

>legal remedies to protect the company from AFRINIC's

>unreasonable actions.


I see.  And who made the decision that the alleged damages incurred
could be reasonably valued at $1.8 BILLION dollars USD?  And on what
was that figure based, exactly?


>> What is happening right now is instead an attempt at a corporate coup,

>> and a hostile takeover, all engineered by one company and by one man.

>

>I'm pretty sure that Lu has no desire to own AFRINIC or take

>over its operations.


Regardless of his wishes, if he wins his judgement for $1.8 billion USD,
he -will- surely end up owning all of AFRINIC, lock, stock, and barrel.

Indeed, unless the asset freeze is reversed in short order, Lu *will*
end up owning all of AFRINIC by default, if for no other reason, then
at least because AFRINIC will have exactly -zero- Mauritian rupees
available to pay lawyers to continue to represent AFRINIC in court.


>Indeed, we have repeatedly expressed our interest and willingness to

>accept a reasonable settlement offer from AFRINIC.


Define "reasonable".

I am prepared to offer a certified cashier's check in the amount of $5,000
USD, drawn from my own personal funds, for Cloud Innovation to go away and
for it to seek its fortunes and its IP address resources elsewhere.

Does Lu have a counter-offer?  Or is his "willingness to accept a reasonable
settlement offer" just more bovine excrement?


>> This is the very opposite of democracy.

>

>This has nothing to do with democracy, this is business. AFRINIC

>threatened to violate

>the terms of our contract...


Which terms, exactly?  Be specific or else have the intellectual honesty
to admit that Cloud Innovation has no case, and that it is just making
trouble because it can... because it hired an exceptionally clever
international "offshore" law firm, Appleby, of some noted repute[1],
which then in turn somehow managed to persuade some naive member of the
judiciary of Mauritius... EX PARTE... that there was some non-zero
probability that the whole of AFRINIC might suddenly pull up stakes
and disappear into the night, taking all of its funds with it, even
though the company has been ongoing and established in Mauritius for
some 17 years and even though it has desks, chairs, phones, office
space, servers, internet connections, and an onsite staff in Mauritius
of over 25 souls.

You and I both know that no such judicial order would ever have been
issued by any U.S. court, and that before any asset freeze of a kind
that would necessarily -cripple- literally -any- organization, any U.S.
courts would first give at least -some- consideration to the question
of whether or not the funds being frozen were or were not actually a
plausible flight risk.... which in the case of AFRINIC's funds, they
clearly are not.

If this is the Mauritian government's idea of how to retract and retain
more international investment to the island, then I would respectfully
suggest to the good citizens of Mauritius that they replace their current
Minister of Industrial Development, their current Minister of Commerce,
and their current Minister of Finance with the Three Stooges, because
those gentlemen would surely do a better job of representing the interests
of the local populace than whoever is overseeing this present judical
farce... a farce whose unavoidable and obvious effect will be to scare
the living bejesus out of any businessman, anywhere in the world, who
might have been considering investing even a single rupee in Mauritius.

The international press has so far taken little notice of the absurdities
going on here.  This will likely not remain the case for much longer.
Lunacy at this level makes for good copy.


Regards,
rfg


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleby_(law_firm)#Paradise_Papers