Brady acted alone, says he wanted to generate money for long term health care.
Nelson Brady has responded to a lawsuit filed by Oversee.net and SnapNames regarding the company’s bidding scandal. Brady admitted to many of Oversee’s allegations. The response does not implicate any other employees in the scheme, indicating that Brady acted alone and other employees did not know about his activities.
Brady admitted that he used the Hank Alvarez (halvarez) account to increase bids by other customers and that he refunded money to himself when he won some of the auctions. Prior to Oversee filing the lawsuit, Brady says he agreed to pay back all of the refunds with interest, but the company refused.
Brady says that his primary use of the Halvarez account was to get domain names for himself; not to increase SnapNames’ revenue. He says he did this to get money for long term health care:
Brady primarily used the Hank Alvarez account to legitimately purchase domain names that Brady believed would be profitable so that he could accumulate savings for his long-term health care. Brady’s mother suffered from a genetic neuromuscular disorder and died at age 56 wheelchair bound with her legs locked in a 90 degree angle at her knees. Brady has the same symptoms as his mother, including severe pain, weakness and stiffness in his muscles, among other things. All these symptoms have gradually worsened as Brady ages (he is currently 54) and for many years Brady has been able to function only by taking muscle relaxants. Brady’s use of the Hank Alvarez account to purchase domain names and accumulate savings for long term health care was driven by his intense fear that at some future undetermined time he will become incapacitated like his mother. Brady further states that he improperly used the Hank Alvarez account to increase other bidders’ bids in a small minority of the total auctions that SnapNames administered between March 2005 and September 2009. Brady further states that his improper use of the Hank Alvarez account to
increase other bidders’ bids was completely separate from Brady’s use of that account to acquire domain names for himself, and was done solely for the benefit of SnapNames and Oversee. Brady mistakenly and wrongly believed that increasing other bidders’ bids would help a small number of SnapNames and Oversee employees other than Brady retain their jobs by creating better financial health for the companies.
Among his defenses, Brady says that company representatives told him they were not suing him, and that is part of the reason he fully cooperated with the company during its investigation.
The entire response to the complaint is available here.
Please be respectful in your comments.
Unbelievable line of defense.
This guy was an astute programmer that should have had no problem making great income which, if he saved his cash and lived modestly, he should have had enough dough to cover his medical expenses.
SnapNames did not have a good health plan for him? One of their top employees? That’s hard to believe.
The story smells bogus.
My company is small, certainly by Oversee / Snapnames standards. However, we have a health plan that includes short term and long term disability. I find it (respectfully) difficult to believe that Snapnames had no health / disability plan in effect for employees and officers.
He should have health care coverage.
It is hard to believe.
So take care of yourself by screwing over us? LOL
On one hand he did it out of fear of his future health problems and bought for his own portfolio… and oh ya I admit screwed over people too by jacking the numbers but my legs my legs they hurt.
His defense is pathetic considering he speaks from both sides of his mouth.
Fraud is fraud and this is a fraudulent case no matter what the excuse is.
what names does he own right now? Whats his best domain name?
“what names does he own right now? Whats his best domain name?”
Those would be the ones he didnt have to pay for!
Id almost say throw his ass in jail but considering he might get free health care Id rather him get wiped out financial and not be able to afford it.
“Unbelievable line of defense.”
It is neither a defense nor an excuse, but he apparently wanted to state his motivation. It doesn’t change anything. A lot of people have simply been wondering why he did what he did, and there had been some rumors that it related to a degenerative illness.
Legally, it does not matter if it was for prospective long term care, or simply for hookers and coke. Apparently, it matters to Mr. Brady that people know it was not for hookers and coke. Take it for what it is.
Let him without sin cast first stone.
Dude is going to be in a wheelchair in few years. Give him a break.
“Let him without sin cast first stone.
Dude is going to be in a wheelchair in few years. Give him a break.”
got bored of spamming?
“got bored of spamming?”
Listen Chap, Spamming is a very pejorative term.
I think you meant to say “Did I get bored of high volume email deployment?”
He should have moved on to robbing banks.
It worked for Ernest Saunders, who got caught artifically inflating his company’s share price and then pleaded that he was suffering from dementia in order to get early release.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Saunders
I assume the illness in this case is more genuine than Saunders’. If so, I would say it gives some leeway for a level of sympathy, even though it clearly does not justify what went on.
Andrew asked us to Please be respectful in our comments.
Okay, I’ll be respectful since he pretty much admitted to his crimes.
Nelson Brady is a thief, a liar and a scumbag.
That’s the respect a criminal deserves.
No mention of profits from his sales to iReit?
What about the domains he stole from people with his insider knowledge?
He should be forced to reveal and forfeit all profits made from domain sales and he should be forced to give back every single domain he ever won.
He should also be banned for life from ever owning a domain again.
Respectful enough?
I think it becomes clearer as I read the last reply why they didnt settle it, this guy needs to get hit where it counts, in his wallet, the legs are just karma.
In a way, we are all working to be “secure” in the future. I agree with the comment that his skills should have been enough to make a good living and have health coverage.
Of all people, he should have known enough about domains to be able to buy a few gems and be set for life.
With this health problem looming, what did he have to lose?
I agree with post #15…and post #12 was a crack up.
The best domain he does *not* own is HankAlvarez.com 😀
I’m with Rob. Plus I don’t even believe it. Plus I still think this was more widespread than reported.
Everyone has a motivation. Do we all get to break the law?
I have quite a number of permanently disabled friends I have known both before and after their injuries, which have shortened their lives and taken a massive toll on their health. I have never heard them plead for permission to steal from others in order to subsidize their condition.
Perhaps Brady is comforted by his confession but thousands of handicapped individuals will be very disappointed in this plea.
seems preepared statements 😀
Andrew post the header ‘comes clean’ i have to come to the conclusion Andrew is a sympathetic figure with a personal bias for the bad actors here.
Nelson Brady has not come clean, he is simply putting issues of mitgation and extenuation ahead of the facts of the case against him.
His pleas under the 14th amendment are particularly notable, when one stops to consider the language
‘ nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; ‘
as Mr Brady set about to deprive others of their property?
Mr Brady has no defense, he set about to launch ths deception, he maintained it, and when caught he sought to save his job, and he and the com0pany made a deal among themselves at everyone else disadvantage, those who fell victim in all the possible ways made no deal to not seek redress.
The defense of ‘I dont have medical security so I derived a way to obtain it’ really does speak to the state of health care where a company simply will not afford health care even for its management, and how far an individual will go to get health care, or and escalde, a Rolex, or a condo in the islands.
The whole thing is just sad but I don’t believe it this is the real truth either. This is the 3rd or 4th “excuse” I’ve heard. Perhaps there are some half truths in there structured to help fight the lawsuit in the best way possible. But if he had done this to get more names he’d have better names. I just don’t want to think about it anymore, it’s just so damn sad. The truth is probably that he did it because it gave him a twisted sense of power and control over others.. an overseer type of rush that worked for him, and if it got company earnings up and elevated Snapnames all the better. He wanted his team to win at all cost, and he would have gotten away with it, along with others who did the exact same thing at different auction houses, if not for some whistleblower. My only regret is that other malfeasance at otheer auction houses never came to the surface in the spectacular way this did.
I propose that we start the Hank Alvarez fund. The guy is in need. Let’s do the Christian thing and forgive his sinful acts. Or something like that.
“Andrew post the header ‘comes clean’ i have to come to the conclusion Andrew is a sympathetic figure with a personal bias for the bad actors here.”
Stewart, you need to look up the definition of “come clean” – to confess
Andrew, you need to look at the definition of bias, you are biased when you caption Brady as coming clean…perhaps Brayd issued a mia culpa …Brady has been caught red handed he has no defense for anything he has done and he knows it, you in the other hand Andrew are a hack and not much else, your gushing interviews with the CEO of oversee were herdly hard hittng and dynamic, you had a chance to question him on the issue and you demured no doubt because you made a deal that if he were to be interviewed you would ask nothing about the Halvarez matter.
Andrew you do a good job reporting the the domain related functions but you are by no means an investigative reporter, your allegience is clear, to the industry.
Bray is guilty of eveything he is accused of doing, snapnames was remiss in instituting the checks and balances of any other corporation and oversee is guilty of collusion for keeping this in house till they got every thing they wanted, from the federal judge by down writing the dollars here then setting a 30 million dollar value to their suit instead, ad of course as usual?
You see no hypocracy here…ergo you ar like wise a hypocrit.
@ stewart
Of course Andrew is not an Investigative reporter or a Policeman or in a position to place judgment he simply asked that we all refer from RANTING ON THIS HOT SUBJECT!
your abusive remarks were uncalled for.
If you are so upset over Nelson Brady i suggest you contact the Washington Attorney Generals office (Brady Home State) as there is much confirmed evidence that he is guilty of International/National Wire Fraud
a Federal crime …
It is indeed remarkable that much effort had been made not to prosecute him, this CLEARLY indicates suspicion that others
may have been involved in said criminal activities.