Begining of the end for Registerfly?

According to DomainToolsBlog:

Reports are flying in about RegisterFly’s implosion. Registerfly’s web site went dark for most of the Monday after the CEO Kevin Medina changed the root password and locked everyone out. It started earlier in the month, on February 12th, vice president John Naruszewicz threw the first major punch by suing the CEO with a claim of misappropriation of corporate funds. The CEO and the Vice-President both own 50% of the company so they are in a dead-lock right now. It seems Mr. Naruszewicz has taken higher ground by sending Mr. Medina a letter of termination.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Naruszewicz claims Medina used company funds to buy a $6000 Chihuahua, $9,000 in escorts, $6,000 worth of liposuction, and $10,000-a-month Miami Beach penthouse. Meanwhile some customers are expressing suicidal thoughts. “I am about to lose 476 domains with registerfly,” he wrote. “In the batch of domains I am about to lose is my bread and butter domains that put food in my family’s mouthes and roofs over my employees heads… You know for a few minutes there I could relate with the people that take their own lives.” Another customer notes that even when he pays them his domains don’t renew, “.. so far 2 of my domains have been allowed to expire. They took my money for one of them, I believe that is called fraud and the other was funded in a quick checkout account, but was never processed after performing the renewal.”

Well, ICANN has interfered:

ICANN has posted a public update on the RegisterFly situation we reported about earlier and it doesn’t look good. On February 21st, 2007, ICANN issued a letter to RegisterFly [PDF, 101K] indicating a Notice of Breach of its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) and demanding that RegisterFly act within 15 working days to cure the breaches outlined in the letter. Also on February 21st, ICANN sent a Notice of Audit [PDF, 60K] that required RegisterFly to allow ICANN to inspect and copy its records. In addition they were given notice to submit data to ICANN or a reputable escrow agent regarding registration applications and Registered name holders. Five days later on February 27th, 2007, ICANN sent two employees to RegisterFly’s offices in New Jersey to audit them and obtain the registrant information. RegisterFly did not compile and refused to give ICANN the Information. Two days later on March 1st, 2007 RegisterFly’s lawyers forwarded a letter [PDF, 12K] to ICANN advising that refusal to comply with ICANN’s request “should not be construed as my client’s unwillingness to cooperate with ICANN but as evidence of their continuing efforts to service their customers.” In response ICANN has issued a second letter [PDF, 288K] dated March 2nd, 2007 setting out additional breaches of the Registrar Agreement and in that letter ICANN describes RegisterFly’s refusal to comply which was based on their “continuing efforts to service their customers” as “preposterous“.

If you are a Registerfly customer, the time to get off their ship is now! Web4Africa is a much better alternative. Offers domain name registration/transfer at affordable rates and accepts e-gold, moneybookers, paypal and bank payment.