Man claims he and friends were duped for $123,000 in new top level domain scheme
Friday, October 26th, 2012
Man says he and friends invested $123,000 for new top level domain project that never got off the ground.
A Florida man has filed a lawsuit alleging he was duped by a new top level domain name scheme.
David Ways planned to apply for the .bim top level domain name. According to the lawsuit, Ways says he contacted VeriSign about his plans and they referred him to Iain Roache as a potential funding source.
Roache is listed as the Chief Executive Officer of a number of companies that have applied for new TLDs through Famous Four Media. Famous Four Media is listed as the contact and “administrative services provider” on 60 new TLD applications. The company is named in the suit.
Ways alleges that Roache represented himself and various affiliated companies as a group that could prepare and finance applications for new top level domain names.
He alleges that Roache informed him he would need to come up with at least $24,000 in seed money for an 8% stake in the .bim project. Ways and his family and friends paid nearly $123,000 to Roache and the affiliated companies, according to the suit.
Ways says he was promised that he would become a full time employee of DotBIM LLP no later than January 2011. As CEO of the company, he would have an annual base compensation of $100,000 plus milestone bonuses, he claims in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Roache and affiliated companies did not perform any of the tasks it agreed to.
No one applied for the .bim top level domain name.
You can read the full allegations here (pdf
Update 10/29/12: here’s the exhibit to the suit with the alleged business agreement.
Tags: new tlds
Notice how the words scam and Florida man are often used in the same sentence
Perhaps Roache should apply for the .bum tld instead?
So idiotic from every angle if true. Bim.com is parked at Sedo, so prob can be acquired for a lot less than $100K. And why would anyone want .bim domains? Instead of suing Roache, he should be thanking him for only relieving him of $100K. If he did apply and get .bim, he would lose several times more with absolutely nothing to show for it.
“…..if you believe that, I gotta’ .bim I’ll sell you!!!”
That’s too bad.
A case was originally filed in August in circuit court and just transferred to u.s. federal district at the request of defendants.
What a shame, I was looking forward to getting my BIM mark.
@J Re: bim.com +1
“Bim”? Is that British for something naughty?
Why do I get the feeling that he’ll soon be finding out that all of his money was left in an account for abandoned foreign transactions in Nigeria. However, with all due confidentiality, we have secure modalities for entering into risky free transaction expedited by our solicitor Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams requires a paperwork fee…
That $123,000 could have been invested in something so much more valuable. These people who throw money after stupid things, how did they get that money to begin with? Windfall inheritance?
Mr Ways is not the only one. You can laugh at the name, but the conduct is real. Mr Ways is simply the only one who’s gone public.
I’ve updated the story with the exhibit of the alleged business agreement between the parties.
Hello John, what do you think about the published documents?
of course he can be trusted
Shame, but the same ending will face every one of the new gtld investors. It’s a sucker’s game and they are all destined to lose all of their money. Only winners will be the attorneys, the arbitrators, GoDaddy and ICANN.
Stick with .com