TRAFFIC is out, but auction house still plans to auction domain names.
After TRAFFIC organizers said they wouldn’t let a collection of domains previously registered to John Zuccarini be auctioned at their show, Rick Latona’s auction house has decided to auction the domains on its own, according to a court filing.
The domains are part of a cybersquatting judgment originally won by Office Depot but later transferred to DS Holdings.
The receiver in the case planned to auction the domain names at next month’s TRAFFIC auction run by Latona. But Zuccarini pointed out that TRAFFIC co-founder Howard Neu had once represented him in the lawsuit that led to the domain names being seized and cried foul.
TRAFFIC organizers then said they wanted nothing to do with the domain names. According to the plaintiff’s attorney:
With his multiple threats, Judgment Debtor John Zuccarini has scared Howard Neu and the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference from getting involved in the auction of the domain holdings.
So the receiver amended his plans to drop the TRAFFIC show but still use Latona’s auction house to auction the domain names. The court has just approved this plan.
But this may not be the end of it. Zuccarini continues to warn Latona that he may be sued if he moves forward with the auction. Zuccarini still argues that the domain names were wrongfully seized from him as he says there was no court order to transfer the domains. He just responded to an argument from VeriSign in an ongoing lawsuit claiming the same (pdf).
What’s interesting to me is the sudden urgency of the judgment holder and receiver to auction the domain names. The domains are earning parking revenue, so they aren’t dead weight. (Although the receiver has some big headaches since he forgot to renew some of the domains). In justifying auctioning the domains in October, the receiver argued that TRAFFIC would be the best venue to sell the domains over the next two years. With TRAFFIC out, the plaintiff now is willing to do an auction without the TRAFFIC umbrella. The plaintiff is arguing to the court that Zuccarini will do whatever he can to stall an auction. But it’s still a mystery why there’s a sudden push to auction the domains.
Quentin says
I and many have lost ALL respect for Rick Latona.
Rick increasingly seems like a petty troublemaker.
Why would any investor permit Rick to sell their digital assets while Rick exhausts his time and energy hocking ugly, gaudy watches?
Now Rick is diving in the prickly tumbleweeds of litigation….ridiculous
Frank says
don’t forget, Rick is also wasting his time selling timeshares and diamonds!…just look at the Latonas.com homepage…what is next, cars and foreclosure defense?
Latona personifies the adage, “a jack of all trades, master at none.”
John Berryhill says
“But it’s still a mystery why there’s a sudden push to auction the domains.”
It does seem they want this case closed before anyone involved becomes curious about where the traffic revenue has been going.
I guess we still don’t know who is behind DS Holdings…
Andrew Allemann says
@ John – I looked into it and can’t figure out who is behind DS Holdings. Maybe I’ll make some phone calls…
duh says
Yeah Rick (S) timed another sale (Traffic) to perfection.
DNLingo says
Which domain names are in question anyways?
Steve M says
You who rag on Latona for expanding into other products/services are kidding, right?
So now there’s something wrong if a “domainer” (even one as busy as Rick) runs other businesses?
Maybe you forgot that this is America; where we don’t put such limits on people.
Sheesh.
EM @ KING.NET says
Amen to that.
Janet says
@Andrew Allemann:
@ John – I looked into it and can’t figure out who is behind DS Holdings. Maybe I’ll make some phone calls…
Would you please tell the rest of us when you find out?
James says
@Quentin – your comments are unprofessional personal attacks, though, I reluctantly agree with your premise
@Frank – agreed, Rick should not place timeshares/diamonds on his domain broker website, tacky
@Berryhill – a little digging reveals DS Holdings. this auction involving a felon’s names should be suspended, till all legal barriers are knocked down
@Steve M – I am a Restaurateur. During consults, my partner & I look for restaurant owners who eat, drink and breathe the restaurant business, they are the most successful. Those restaurant owners who run unrelated side businesses, project weakness, lack clarity, and fail. We advise these owners to purge their sideshows, and focus on the restaurant business, you are either all in or all out. Similarly, I don’t list my luxury home with a broker who repairs computers M,W,F, sells cars T, Th, and sells homes on the weekends. I list my luxury home with a broker who eats, drinks and breathes residential real estate.
Andrew Allemann says
@ James – we know it’s DS Holdings, we just don’t know who is really behind DS Holdings
Janet says
@Andrew…we know it’s DS Holdings, we just don’t know who is really behind DS Holdings
Touche`
Janet says
Is it usually this hard to find out who is behind an entity such as DSH?
Janet says
http://www.sos.state.co.us/biz/ViewImage.do?masterFileId=20061274274&fileId=20071364890
The above link shows:
KARL KRONENBERGER AS OWNER OF DS HOLDINGS,LLC
Colorado.
Andrew Allemann says
Janet – I think the link shows that Kronenberger filed the paperwork for the company, but not necessarily owns it.
Nootkabear says
“Equal Justice for All”
If you go back to the original Office Depot v Zuccarini suit, the Court lacked jurisdiction and venue. They claimed quasi in rem jurisdiction under ACPA, but still a problem… In that case they should have had to go to VA to do the suit.
Then Office Depot gets this judgment, and never tried to collect on it, yea DSH has repeatedly claimed that Office Depot couldn’t ever collect because of Zuccarini an his notorious way of moving around and not being able to find him. That too is hogwash.
The facts clearly show that Zuccarini was living in FL since 2001 and was fairly easy to find (most of the time); nevertheless, Office Depot never bothered to file the Judgment in FL, so that means they never tried to collect on it.
And for everyone else that wants to say some really bad things about Zuccarini… he may be alot of things, but really people “criminal notorious cybersquatter”; “serial cybersquatter”, and other references, which are really quite worse. Then Kronie claims that the Shields case is where some of the worse comes from. I read the Shields Appellate Court Opinion, it didn’t say that at all. It said:
“Although Zuccarini’s sites did not involve pornography, his intent was the same as that mentioned in the legislative history above — to register a domain name in anticipation that consumers would make a mistake, thereby increasing the number of hits his site would receive, and, consequently, the number of advertising dollars he would gain.”
So John was given a bad time, and there are a lot of wild rumors out there, and a lot of people want to say a lot of BullShit, but really… does that make DS Holdings, Rick Latona, or any other number of entities better? They are actually bigger crooks than Zuccarini could ever be… Kronie does it under the guise of being an attorney.
Maybe that is why attorneys have bad names (not all attorneys, Berryhill has shown to not be quite like the rest, and I hear good things about several others that run domain news websites)
Then you have this Judge…Illston. What the hell kind of Judge allows that much fraud upon the Court in their Courtroom? Is she just stupid, or is she in on it too?
Does DS Holdings somehow own Illston?
Hell, now I have more questions than I had before I found out that Kronie is DSH!
Janet says
Andrew,
Yes I noticed that after the fact…
Still think something is there though.
They started scrambling to get rid of those domain names real quick about the same time that Mr. Zuccarini filed that FL complaint.