ICANN terminates “C I Host, Inc.” registrar accreditation because it has no website, no office and doesn’t pay accreditation fees

ICANN sent a notice of termination of registrar accreditation agreement for the registrar C I Host, Inc. on the 1st of March 2013. CI Host website at cihost.com does not resolve, there are no working telephone numbers, their office space has been sold and they haven’t paid the accreditation fees for several months. Also the domain name cihost.com(.net/.org) seems to have an email address on whois that belongs to an Orlando criminal defense and family law attorney. CIHOST was once a very popular web hosting company but that all came to an end after several robberies. The latest was in 2007 when CI Host Chicago was stormed by armed robbers who stole 20+ servers and assorted network gear. This was the fourth time since 2005 that CI Host Chicago had been robbed in this manner.

C I Host, Inc.s Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) dated 4 Feb 2012 was terminated pursuant to Section 5.3.7 of the RAA. Consistent with RAA Section 5.3 Termination of Agreement by ICANN, this termination is effective immediately.

This termination is based on C I Host’s seeming insolvency. ICANN came to this conclusion based on the following:
1. The contact details provided to ICANN by CI Host (telephone numbers, fax number and address) are no longer valid, in violation of RAA Section 5.11 Notices, Designations, and Specifications;
2. An article published by D Magazine states that another entity purchased the office space where C I Host allegedly operates. To see the article, go to: http://realpoints.dmagazine.com/2012/03/corespace-moving-headquarters-to-dallas/;
3. C I Host’s failure to provide an interactive webpage, in violation of RAA Section 3.3 Public Access to Data on Registered Names ( www.cishost com does not resolve); and
4. C I Host’s failure to timely pay accreditation fees for several months, in violation of RAA Section 3.9 Accreditation Fees.

Domain Name Transition Process
To protect domain name registrants, ICANN will commence the domain name transition process and will solicit bids for a qualified ICANN-accredited registrar to manage the domain names currently managed by the three registrars above. ICANN will follow the De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure.

ICANN has terminated a lot of registrar accreditations lately:

ICANN terminated “Power Brand Center Corp.’s” registrar accreditation after failing to pay accreditation fees.

ICANN terminated the “Bargin Register” Registrar Accreditation After Failing to Keep Accurate Whois.

On the 11th of February ICANN sent another three notices of termination of registrar accreditation agreements. The three registrars were:

1. Central Registrar, Inc. DBA Domainmonger.com’s (“Domainmonger.com”) (accredited since 4 October 2010)
2. R. Lee Chambers Company LLC dba DomainsToBeSeen.com’s (“DomainsToBeSeen.com”) (accredited since 5 March 2008)
3. Lime Labs LLC’s (“Lime Labs”) LimeDomains.com (accredited since 9 October 2009)

The 3 registrars above were part of the 10 ICANN accredited registrar were in breach of their Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on the 11th January 2013.