OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Mugshots.com co-owner Sahar Sarid was arrested on Wednesday over extortion, money laundering, and identity theft charges. His bail was set at $1.86 million.
The investigation was carried out by the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force, a consortium of local, state and federal enforcement agencies with headquarters in Napa.
The Mugshots.com website is still currently operating.
Sun Sentinel reports: “The owners of Mugshots.com have tried to conceal their identities by listing their business address in Nevis, West Indies, registering their domain name in Belize and using a website hosting company in Australia, according to the attorney general’s affidavit. They also hide behind dissolved or inactive limited liability companies. In doing so, “the owners avoid service of process by those who have been injured through their business practices, giving their victims no recourse to seek damages,” the affidavit stated.”
I won’t say much about this case but just this. When I was calling “bs” on his alleged sale of mugshots.com his “friends” were all over me.
BTW, mugshots.com is using for many years fake whois privacy. This is just a gmail account that says “intlwhoisprivacy@gmail.com”. This is not the Fabulous.com whois privacy. Somehow I have a feeling that there is no company called “International Whois Privacy Services Limited” in Belize.
The Department of Justice of the State of California in the US issued a press release on May 16, 2018.
“California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today announced charges of extortion, money laundering, and identity theft against four defendants who are allegedly behind the exploitative website Mugshots.com. The website mines data from police and sheriffs’ department websites to collect individuals’ names, booking photos and charges, then republishes the information online without the individuals’ knowledge or consent. Once subjects request that their booking photos be removed, they are routed to a secondary website called Unpublisharrest.com and charged a “de-publishing” fee to have the content removed. Mugshots.com does not remove criminal record information until a subject pays the fee.”
“The defendants named in the complaint are Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya Bhavnanie, Thomas Keesee, and David Usdan. They are the alleged owners and operators of Mugshots.com. Over a three-year period, the defendants extracted more than $64,000 in removal fees from approximately 175 individuals with billing addresses in California. Nationally, the defendants took more than $2 million in removal fees from approximately 5,703 individuals for the same period.”
“If you believe you are a victim of Mugshots.com, you are encouraged to file a police report with your local police department so you will have documentation of your complaint. If your booking photo was taken in California, or you were in California when you contacted Mugshots.com to “de-publish” your information, please contact the Attorney General’s eCrime Unit at eCrimeUnit@doj.ca.gov. Out-of-state complaints can be reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) https://www.ic3.gov.”
It is important to note that a criminal indictment contains charges that are only allegations against a person. Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Here are some of the posts about Sahar Sarid in 2016 on OnlineDomain.com:
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I like the color of his jumpsuit, brings out the brown in his eyes.
I haven’t seen Sahar in years and we spoke on a number of panels. but that is hilarious.
Would be a fitting tribute if Mugshots.com just had the mugshots of these guys on.
Brad
News of this is now on the front page of Drudge Report.
One thing is for sure: This is going to be expensive. The criminal defense will be expensive. The civil side of this will be expensive.
Hopefully, there’s some explanation that makes it all go away, but given the “Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force, a consortium of local, state and federal enforcement agencies with headquarters in Napa” was involved, makes it seem like this was well researched going in.
The following 25-page court documents shows to what scheming extents the pompous smug two-faced phony 3rd world evildoing camel-screwing hustler SAHAR SAHID went in order to ruin the lives of others only so he could enrich his own filthy lucre grubbing hands and pockets:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4465207/MUGSHOT-FILED-ARREST-WARRANT-Redacted.pdf
So much with “leaving the world a little better place then he found it”.
What’s the name of that doctor that always defended this guy’s character on the blogs? Chris Hartnett? Ridiculous.
Karma in full circle. Told lots of folks over the years Sahar Saris was a con artist and crook and not to be trusted. In late 1999 Sahar, Jeff bvhavanie and I became legal partners under global domains LLC and registered a multimillion dollar portfolio of expired/dropped domains. Sales were slow at first with lots of interest because of our asking prices, until we got a 2 character . Com on the drop and sold for $200k within days. That’s when all went downhill and Jeff and Sahar illegally terminated partnership with me as they remained partners with full portfolio. Didn’t have the funds to hire proper legal counsel, so technically assume legally partners still today with domain portfolio and all earned ppc since late 1999. Unfortunately, still do not have the funds to fight this legal battle for my portion of the multimillion dollar portfolio. Money created greed and that produces crooks and con artist. Still have all documentation with list of names till that point, however not a list of all others for past 18yrs. Notice how quite the domain blogs and industry are about this big news article? Completely ignored……..Karma was long over due for Sahar, Jeff, kismore, and many more not named yet. Like his family mother and sister. Now maybe folks will agree with what I said many times over the years about Sahar Saris, regardless of the bs fluff article on dnjournal.com published. Everyone looking at him as an icon in industry. Still looking for a top IP lawyer to assist with pursing this multi million dollar case that would be worth their time with lawsuit. There are many other unpublished stories of scandals, crooks, and cons in the domain industry never published. Feel free to email for detailed info or want to publish a full factual article on my comment here with Sahar Sarid and Jeff Bvhanie. Kishmore bvhavanie is Jeff’s brother who were living in Hong Kong back then and Sahar was living outside of Houston.
Notice how this big news is completely ignored by all domain bloggers and the industry? Not surprising. The industry is filled with many like minded folks or who did or doing business still with Sahar Sarid and Jeff Bvhavanie etc. The silence tells a story worth digging more into for transparency purposes etc.
What about his biz partner Adam Dicker?
LOL@ “His bail was set at $1.86 million.” 😀
Next ones in line in the Domain Industry CLEANUP are those criminals involved in SHILL BIDDING and FRAUDULENT BIDDING in Domain Auctions and their accomplices … get ready for your JAIL TIME and HEAVY FINES dudes! ….
Those guys in the Domain Industry who have praised Sahar Sarid, including well-knows Domain Investors, Brokers, Domain Bloggers (excluding Konstantinos) and other “Business friends”, and who even did business with him now are silent or are distancing from him … haha, the usual mafia …
Steve Morales above is right when he says that “The industry is filled with many like minded folks” … I’ve never been surprised of that, it’s very similar to the Financial Industry, which is my background.
Lies have short legs … and karma will make justice. 😉
Thanks Konstantinos for being the first one publishing this article and letting me post how I was victimized criminally by Sahar Sarid and Kismore “Jeff” Bvhavanie.
I can be emailed at texmexi (@) yahoo.com if interested in publishing another factual criminal multi million dollar business crime with my story involving Kismore aka Jeff Bhavanie, and Sahar Sarid on my posting above with documentation and full list of names verifying value of portfolio alone at that stage, not including PPC revenue and Domain Sales completed.
In addition, Criminal/Business/IP Lawyers, etc can email me directly if interested in pursuing lawsuit on this multi million dollar domain portfolio, domain sales completed, and PPC revenue past 18yrs. Lawsuit has solid foundation and documentation to be awarded punitive damages, domain portfolio, and lost revenue. Is there a statue of Limitations for such criminal/business lawsuit cases, if any?
Steve, I’m not a lawyer but financial crimes like what you wrote happened to you have a statute of limitations. I think it’s 5 years in most cases. You may have missed your chance to do something.
Also, the guy only needs to post 10% of the bail to walk free for the time being. He can’t even do that. Where did all the money go?
He just posted bail.