Two Belize-based shell companies, Sun Limited and Mirarnay Systems Limited, both registered at 35 Barrack Road, Belize City, have been linked to what US authorities describe as a “rogue” internet service provider that the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) moved to shut down today, disconnecting them from the Internet.
The FTC says the parent company, Pricewert LLC, the Belize-registered company, “…actively recruits and colludes with criminals seeking to distribute illegal, malicious, and harmful electronic content, including child pornography, spyware, viruses, trojan horses, phishing, botnet command and control servers, and pornography, featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.”
Most computer users know that while computers and the Internet come with endless benefits, unscrupulous and criminal users exploit them for wicked and malicious deeds. Incidentally, this week’s edition of Amandala carries two such scenarios: that targeted at Atlantic Bank’s online customers, and the other involving the theft of the driver’s license database at the Belize City Council used to perpetrate the Money Gram scam. (We are not saying that this FTC suit is linked to those two occurrences.)
According to documents Amandala obtained from the FTC,Pricewert LLC has been doing business as 3FN.net, Trime Fiber Network, APS Telecom and APXTelecom, APS Communications, and APS Communication. We note that the court papers don’t list individual people, only company names.
Papers filed with the United States District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose Division) say that Pricewert LLC is registered at 35 Barack Road in Belize City, Belize, and further research by our newspaper, from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Corporate Division of business names, details that the company was registered in Portland, Oregon, in September 2003, with the two Belize companies being listed as members.
The Belize address is the same as those listed for agents that register International Business Corporation or IBC’s in Belize, such as those listed as members of Pricewert. The business address is also shared with the Glenn D. Godfrey law office, and formerly the address of the Provident [Offshore] Bank & Trust, which has since been sold to an Antiguan investor.
The FTC alleges that the defendant, Pricewert, “…advertised its services in the darkest corners of the Internet, including a forum established to facilitate communication between criminals.”
The FTP continues: “The complaint alleges that Pricewert actively shielded its criminal clientele by either ignoring take-down requests issued by the online security community, or shifting its criminal elements to other Internet protocol addresses it controlled to evade detection.”
One of the servers, says the FTC, hosts as many as 4,500 malicious programs.
“This malware includes programs capable of keystroke logging, password stealing, and data stealing, programs with hidden backdoor remote control activity, and programs involved in spam distribution,” its news release adds.
The FTC is accusing Pricewert of “distribution of illegal, malicious, and harmful content and deployment of botnets that compromised thousands of computers, caused substantial consumer injury, and was an unfair practice, in violation of federal law.”
The San Jose California court on Tuesday issued a temporary, ex parte injunction, and the defendants are to reappear in court on Monday, June 15, for a preliminary injunction hearing.
According to the FTC, the court’s order also freezes Pricewert’s assets.
A team of cyber-czars, including NASA’s Office of Inspector General, Computer Crime Division; Gary Warner, Director of Research in Computer Forensics, University of Alabama at Birmingham; The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; The Shadowserver Foundation; Symantec Corporation; and The Spamhaus Project, have been engaged in the investigations, the Commission said.