14 DAY TRIAL // A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to several charges resulting from the theft and reselling of the p2p.com domain name, in the first case of this type ever to be prosecuted in the United States.
Daniel Goncalves, 26, of Union Township, pleaded guilty yesterday before Judge Stuart L. Peim in Union County Superior Court to theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and computer theft, all in the second degree.
In May 2006, Daniel Goncalves obtained unauthorized access to the GoDaddy account of P2P.com, LLC, a company created by domain investors Marc Ostrofsky, Albert Angel and his wife Lesli Angel.
The account was used to manage the p2p.com domain name, which was acquired by the three partners from a different company for $160,000.
Once inside, Goncalves initiated domain name transfer procedures and moved p2p.com to his account at GoDaddy. He later transferred it to a different domain registrar.
Eventually he put the domain up for sale on eBay and it was bought by NBA basketball player Mark Madsen for $111,211. Madsen had no knowledge that the domain was stolen.
Ostrofsky and the Angels did not realize the theft until one year later when being notified by a fellow domainer who noticed the changes made to it.
The three partners began investigating the incident on their own and determined that the thief is most likely from New Jersey. Therefore, in October 2008 they filed a complaint and forwarded all gathered evidence to the New Jersey State Police.
The subsequent investigation conducted by the New Jersey State Police Cyber Crimes Unit led to the identification and arrest of Goncalves on July 30, 2009.
The domain thief is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6 and under the plea agreement the prosecutors will recommend a punishment of five years in prison and monetary restitution.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General's Office this is the first known conviction for a domain name theft.