20090419124143.txt

—
Illicit enrichment by ICANN members in Brazil!

The Facts.

During the past 12 years the Internet in Brazil is being controlled by a fairly
small group of people calling themselves CGI.br "Comite Gestor da
Internet do Brasil" which main goal is profiting and getting benefits for
themselves. ICANN charges about US$0.25 to process a registration for
each domain meanwhile in Brazil CGI charges US$ 45.00 back in 1999,
US$37.00 in 2002 and today this fee is about US$14.00 a year for each
ccTLD domain registration. Some high ranking legislators declared CGI.br
group as nonexistent and unconstitutional in fact they are considered to
be just like a fake company which does not have a federal tax id # therefore
can not operate legally.

By charging these high fees for domain registration their income already
passed the 120 million dollars figure. CGI passed a resolution to appoint
FAPESP (a foundation which is sponsored by the state of São Paulo) to
be the government body responsible to collect the payment however the
terms of the payment are quite confusing since FAPESP cannot receive
money from the public the payment is disguised as an anonymous
donation since FAPESP is not obligated by Brazilian law to identify each
company paying for this so called public service therefore no state or
federal taxes are collected and no receipt is given. Many Internet users
in Brazil are calling this practice "extortion" because there are more than
1 million domains registered unless you DONATE to FAPESP you loose
your domain registration.

Many law suits were filled in the Brazilian courts and some police probe is
being performed to investigate some serious allegation about the
disappearance of these public funds. In addition the Brazilian justice
system is investigating if NIC.BR is involved in any money laundering
scheme between the years of 2003 and 2005 disguised as subcontract
by providing services to FAPESP.

Members of ICANN involved in these schemes;

1- With the help of CGI members Mr. Demi Getschko (an official ICANN
elected member) opened a non-profit organization named NIC.BR where
Mr. Getschko is the owner/director replacing FAPESP and acting as the
ONLY official register without the local or federal government offering
public bidding for this transferring process to companies and
organizations with the same goals to compete of becoming a registrar.
In fact these individuals define the rules and fees as CGI and collect the
money as NIC.BR. To give you an example just picture members of
ICANN in the United States opening a non-profit organization and this
same organization would act as a company like Network Solutions
defining the rules and fees however these same members collects
US$14.000.000.00 a year for domain registration as a non-profit organization.

2- In 1998 Mr. Ivan Moura Campos coordinator of CGI declared many
times that CGI paid US$ 30.000.00 to FAPESP monthly for Internet
services at the same time CGI collected US$ 1.200.000.00 monthly
for domain registration. At the same time Mr. Campos was the president
of NIC.BR administrative board in addition Mr. Campos was founder/partner
of Akwan/todobr a Internet search engine which was sold to Google for an
estimated US$ 25.000.000.00. We all know the secret of a search engine
is having access to all domains in the Brazilian registry system to have the
most complete content. Hundreds of Brazilians tried without succeeding
creating a search engine service like Yahoo/Cade/Google. 280 search
engines are still functioning however AKWAN was the ONLY company
acquired by a high price in this market.

Other irregularities are being investigated by the Brazilian authorities like
more than 60 thousand illegal domain bidding with rules defined by CGI
executed before by FAPESP and now by Mr. Demi Getschko's NIC.BR
which decides who gets the best generic names.

There is almost impossible these things happening in the United States
however in Brazil it's happening right now with ICANN members involved
in the schemes. Some strange statements like the one made by CGI's
president Mr. Raphael Mandarino who said; "The Brazilian ccTLD
registry system is one of the best in the world and it's being copied
by many countries around the globe, the American model is stupidity
as in the US the companies want only to make a profit". As the most
democratic country in the world the US has more than 500 accredited
domain registers. In Brazil there's only ONE accredited name registro.br
acting 10 years as FAPESP and now as NIC.BR

CGI was trying to encourage companies to become accredited registrars
by offering them a piece of the action something like 10% meaning
US$1.40 (The completely opposite from USA) however only 5 companies
decided of becoming accredited registrars and now they are liable for all
fees related to eventual legal proceedings pertaining to a dispute of any
domain registered by these accredited registrars.

In addition Mr. Demi Getschko is updating all information in USA on
ICANN contact site from CGI.BR to NIC.BR to trying to make official
the private organization NIC.BR which is NOT repeating, is NOT an
official public representative.

In the 2003 Tunisian ICANN forum CGI.BR performed a survey with a very
strange question; Are you in favor of United States controlling the Internet
in the world? The answer was obviously NOT.

Mr. Getschko "The so called OWNER of the Brazilian Internet" DOES not
want to give away Internet control in Brazil and could ONLY obtain his title
"Very Knowledgeable Person" in this very important high ranking post for
being appointed by government high brasses after declaring expenses
of more than US$ 10.000.000.00 by CGI. These expenses are very
shady since nobody knows for what, where & how. In addition Mr. Getshko
could get other high ranking posts such as; assessor of FAPESP's
president, CEO of NIC.BR, OESP's TI director (one of the most prominent
news agency in Brazil), Director of the board for ABRANET
(ISP Brazilian Association) .

Unfortunately ICANN is sponsoring Mr. Getschko activities in Brazil by
allowing its members under his leadership to practice these kind of
wrongdoings creating a negative environment in the Brazilian registry
system and penalizing thousands of companies by his anti-democratic
practices.

Some legal proceedings in the Brazilian courts;

1- TCU - Tribunal de Contas da Uniao (Brazilian Federal Comptroller) -
www.tcu.gov.br lawsuit under file # 012.048/2001-5 TCU against
CGI.BR/FAPESP to investigate possible fraud related to undeclared
funds collected by registering domains between 2001 and 2005.
Because of the delay in investigating possible fraud against public
interest almost US$ 175.000.000.00 entered FAPESP as donation
collected from domain owners, an illegal practice according to TCU.

2- Federal Police Revenue Division investigating the disappearance
of more than US$ 60.000.000.00 of FAPESP funds after probing
people's statement about this issue. Police Inquire - Inquerito 147206
Processo 050060353642-0000.

abusando.info welcome any information about CGI.BR/FAPESP/NIC.BR
lawsuits and legal disputes filed in Brazil or any other country.

Please contact abusando@abusando.info if you have any question,
comment or concern regarding these issues.

Brazilian Association of IP Users and Domain Owners
Webmaster abusando.info
321 250 1664

contributed by guest@socialtext.net on 2009-04-19 12:41:43 GMT