<div dir="auto">Ronald,<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Don't mind the sock puppets and trolls, like my good friend Nishal indicated after all its often hard to dispute facts because fact are facts.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Noah</div><div dir="auto">Your apparent sidekick :-)</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, 1 Jan 2021, 04:57 Ronald F. Guilmette, <<a href="mailto:rfg@tristatelogic.com">rfg@tristatelogic.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">I am pleased to inform you all that there has been at least some minimal<br>
progress with respect to AFRINIC wrestling back control of many or most<br>
of the legacy IPv4 blocks that were effectively stolen from their<br>
rightful owners by Mr. Cohen, Mr. Uerlings, and others.<br>
<br>
Quietly, and without any public fanfare, it appears that AFRINIC staff,<br>
since around December 19th, have been adding annotations to the WHOIS<br>
records of many of these stolen blocks to indicate AFRINIC's recognition<br>
that these blocks were in fact stolen.<br>
<br>
For example, the WHOIS record for the <a href="http://196.16.0.0/14" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">196.16.0.0/14</a> block which was stolen<br>
from the South African national government's in-house IT arm... formerly<br>
called "Infoplan" and long ago renamed to "SITA"... now contains the<br>
following annotations:<br>
<br>
remarks: ============REMARK===================<br>
remarks: The custodianship of this IP prefix is presently<br>
remarks: deemed to be in dispute. Consequently,<br>
remarks: no change request pertaining to this particular<br>
remarks: prefix will be entertained by AFRINIC until the<br>
remarks: issue is finally resolved between the disputants<br>
remarks: themselves or by a competent authority.<br>
remarks: Further, whilst the current holder of the said prefix<br>
remarks: continues to hold same, AFRINIC shall bear no<br>
remarks: responsibility whatsoever in relation thereto and<br>
remarks: disputants are encouraged to resolve the said<br>
remarks: dispute expeditiously.<br>
remarks: ============REMARK====================<br>
<br>
The AFRINIC WHOIS history of this block is shown here:<br>
<br>
<a href="https://pastebin.com/raw/m0LVuppe" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://pastebin.com/raw/m0LVuppe</a><br>
<br>
As anyone can clearly see, the block was originally assigned to "Infoplan"<br>
in South Africa, even in the AFRINIC records which, in the case of this<br>
specific block, have been partially "disappeared" via a process that<br>
AFRINIC has yet to explain.<br>
<br>
Additional records relating to this same block, and which go back even<br>
further in time... all the way back to January 28, 1994... are readily<br>
available from ARIN's "WhoWas" historical data service. These even<br>
earlier historical records also confirm 100% that this block was formally<br>
assigned to Infoplan (now named SITA) in January, 1994.<br>
<br>
As anyone can also see from the AFRINIC historical records for this block,<br>
the contact mailing address for this block was changed, on or about<br>
2015-01-23, to be an address in the Seychelles Islands. So you have to<br>
ask yourself: Why would an entity that is part of the South African<br>
national government suddely relocate itself to the Seychelles Islands?<br>
<br>
Obviously, it wouldn't. That is nonsensical on the face of it. So what<br>
really happened here?<br>
<br>
There are only two plausible possibilities: Either (a) the block was simply<br>
stolen, by messers Cohen, Uerlings, and Byaruhanga, via some clever and<br>
illicit manipluation of the relevant AFRINIC WHOIS records, or else (b)<br>
someone within the South African government received some payment in<br>
exchange for the legitimate rights to this block... either with or without<br>
the knowledge and consent of the South African government itself.<br>
<br>
Personally, I find the second possibility, (b), to be implausible, not<br>
because I believe that South African government officials are universally<br>
immune to a little private bribery, but only because I have personally<br>
spoken to a number of the other parties and entities that have also and<br>
likewise had their legacy AFRINIC IPv4 address blocks stolen out from<br>
under them, for example, the South African commercial metals company known<br>
as Columbus Stainless (<a href="http://160.115.0.0/16" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">160.115.0.0/16</a>), and also to managers and technical<br>
people associated with South Africa's state-owned oil company, Sasol,<br>
which also had its <a href="http://155.237.0.0/16" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">155.237.0.0/16</a> block "liberated" from their control,<br>
temporarily at least, in some still-mysterious way.<br>
<br>
These are just two examples of the several AFRINIC legacy block holders<br>
that have had their stuff stolen, and that I have personally spoken to<br>
on multiple occasions. IN ALL CASES, when I was able to make contact<br>
with the real and legitimate legacy block owners those legitimate owners<br>
universally expressed astonishment when I informed them that they were<br>
no longer in control of their own assigned IP address assets. Since my<br>
initial contacts with these various victim organizations, several of them,<br>
including the two mentioned above, as well as the City of Cape Town and<br>
others, have moved swiftly to regain control of what was stolen from them.<br>
<br>
Were insiders at literally ALL of these commercial companies and government-<br>
owned organizations bribed to give up company assets to messers Cohen and<br>
Uerlings? I don't think so. That notion really stretches the bounds of<br>
credibility.<br>
<br>
That leaves us with possibility (a) which is just that -somehow- the WHOIS<br>
records were illicitly manipulated in some manner, by some party, so as<br>
to provide effective control of the blocks to messers Cohen and Uerlings,<br>
and also to Mr. Abizeid and Mr. Mehta.<br>
<br>
Nonetheless, Mr. Cohen has gone to court, ostensibly to reclaim his rights<br>
with respect to more than 20 different large AFRINIC legacy blocks, all /16<br>
or larger, which he claims to have legitimately paid for.<br>
<br>
An honest man has nothing to hide, and Mr. Cohen could clear this all up<br>
very easily by just showing us all copies of the checks he claims to have<br>
written in order to purchase all of these 20 or so AFRINIC legacy blocks.<br>
<br>
So far he seems entirely reluctant to do that. It doesn't take a genius<br>
to figure out why. If he did show us the checks, this entire ludicrous<br>
and convoluted theft scheme would come crashing down around him, and he<br>
knows it. (He may have written those checks to his cohort in crime, Mr.<br>
Uerlings or to one of Mr. Uerlings shell companies, or he may have written<br>
the checks to Ernest, or to one of Ernest's shell companies, or he may<br>
even have written the checks to some other and different crooked high-level<br>
AFRINIC insider who held an even more senior position than Ernest, back in<br>
the 201-2015 time frame, but he most certainly DID NOT write those checks<br>
to any of the actual and legitimate legacy blocks owners.)<br>
<br>
Instead of just showing us his payment checks, or even the purchase reciepts<br>
for the IP address assets that he claims to have legitimately "bought",<br>
Mr. Cohen has instead tried repeatedly and in every way he can think of<br>
to simply browbeat, harass, and intimidate AFRINIC into submission. His<br>
delusional rantings here got him banned, so now he has invented multiple<br>
sock puppet email accounts to circumvent that ban so that he can continue<br>
his delusional and fact-free public ranting.... as if anybody is at all<br>
likely to believe anything that either he or his multiple sock puppets<br>
might say at this point.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately for Mr. Cohen, none of his rather silly attemps to intimidate<br>
AFRINIC are working, and none of them will work, because there are just too<br>
many actual and independently verifiable facts on the table at this point.<br>
But Mr. Cohen has several million reasons ($$$) to hope against hope that<br>
he can somehow still keep his stolen stuff, so he is motivated to keep on<br>
trying, even though literally all of the facts are against him. This<br>
pitiful public spectacle is sad to watch, but like our Mr. Trump here in<br>
the U.S., Mr. Cohen is in denial, and is simply having trouble emotionally<br>
processing the fact that he has already lost.<br>
<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
rfg<br>
<br>
<br>
P.S. I suppose that whoever is administering the AFRINIC mailing lists<br>
could be doing a somewhat better job of filtering out posting from Cohen's<br>
various sock puppet free email accounts, but I personally don't mind if<br>
they don't. Every time he posts to the mailing lists using one of his<br>
sock puppet identities he simply adds to the already abundant evidence<br>
that he thinks the rules don't apply to him, and he also adds to the<br>
equally abundant evidence that he's not an entirely well man.<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div>