Cloud company CEO accused of orchestrating million-dollar IP fraud scheme

U.S. attorneys have charged a South Carolina man with operating a scheme that fraudulently obtained internet addresses worth roughly $14 million that later were used by spammers. Amir Golestan was charged this week with 20 counts of wire fraud for his alleged role in a plot to create fictitious companies, then use those firms to obtain more than 750,000 IP addresses. Golestan’s data center company, Micfo LLC, obtained those addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers, a nonprofit that oversees the release of IP addresses only to companies that meet ARIN criteria. By impersonating at least 10 companies, the indictment alleges, Golestan created his own secondary market for the IPv4 addresses, which the government alleges are worth $13 to $19 apiece. Then, he sold many of those IP addresses via a third party, according to the indictment. Many of those addresses later appeared on a blocklist of known spammers […]

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