<:P>Escorts.com. Seems like such a good domain for an escort related (escort service, websites for escorts) website, doncha think? The domain, itself, is almost irresistible. It almost compels the owner/registrant to act, to maximize profits from direct navigation, inherent brandability, search engine friendly keyword domain, anchor text for links, etc.
All that . . and now this? Who woulda thunk that someone would have noticed, taken offense and taken action against the operators of the Escorts.com website?</:P>
National A-1 is a BIG player in the keyword domain space, owning more than a few million dollar domains, such as Free.com, Antiques.com, Fun.com, Cash.com, Girls.com, Boys.com, Teens.com, Camps.com, Pillows.com and more.
Do you think National A-1 cares or cared about the potential damage to "their brand"? The domain development plans for their other domains? ("Hey, we'll just change the registrant. No one will remember the connection to Escorts.com.")
From the U.S. Attorney's Office of the U.S. Department of Justice:
Pursuant to a plea agreement also filed today with he U.S. District Court in Williamsport, National A-1 Advertising and R.S Duffy agreed to enter guilty pleas to the money laundering conspiracy charge alleged in the Information, to serve a probation term of 18 months, and to pay a $1,500,000 fine. In addition, under the terms of the plea agreement, the defendants have agreed to the criminal forfeiture of $4.9 million in cash derived from the unlawful activity, as well as forfeiture of the domain name, Escorts.com, all of which represent property used to facilitate the commission of the offenses.
Source [
justice.gov ]
As my divorce lawyer friend would say, after putting the screws to the husband or wife who just couldn't keep their vows, "Justice: the x-ing you get for the x-ing you got!"
And so it goes for Escorts.com.
So much for all the Fun(.com) Cash(.com) National A-1 generated from Escorts(.com) from all the (supposedly) Free(.com) sexual interactions of all the grownup Boys(.com) and Girls(.com) who employed . . err . . used their service . . err . . website.
