French photojournalist, Ammar Abd Rabbo denied any sale occurred.
In a shocking twist of events, Ammar Abd Rabbo, the French journalist and photographer that appeared to have been the seller of the domain Ammar.com to Ammar Kubba, disclaimed any such sale occurred.
Ammar Abd Rabbo left a comment, stating:
“Just to make things clear : I am Ammar Abd Rabbo, and I did not sell “Ammar.com”, it is now under inquiry as it has been stolen or sold without my consent. I am checking with iCann as well as Network Solutions (my previous registrar), and there will be a lawsuit. This is a very unethical way of doing things. There was no “five figures deal” or anything like that.”
The news is definitely disheartening, and hopefully there will be a thorough investigation in this matter.
We researched the recent WHOIS history of Ammar.com using DomainTools, and before its recent ownership it changed hands as follows:
On 4/21/2015 under privacy WHOIS at Cosmotown.com, a Korean domain registrar.
On 1/24/2015 the domain is with the Chinese domain registrar IISP.com, and the following WHOIS
Registry Registrant ID: NICE-2014486175
Registrant Name: Mohammed Ali
Registrant Organization: Mohammed Ali
Registrant Street: Villa 24, Block 4, Al-Mutawakel Street
Registrant City: Kuwait City
Registrant State/Province: Da-aiyah
Registrant Postal Code: 13113
Registrant Country: KW
Registrant Phone: +965.22563033
Registrant Fax: +965.22563033
Registrant Email: stas.khramov@gmail.com
On 12/8/2014 the WHOIS first becomes that above.
On 10/4/2014 the WHOIS reflects the ownership of Ammar Abd Rabbo, as follows:
Registrant Name: Ammar, Abd-Rabbo
Registrant Organization: Ammar Abd-Rabbo
Registrant Street: 27, rue de Paris
Registrant City: Boulogne-Billancourt
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code: 92100
Registrant Country: FR
Registrant Phone: +33.61213[redacted]
Registrant Email: [redacted]@hotmail.com
This seems to be a case of a domain that was stolen at Network Solutions and was laundered by being transferred to a new registrar every 60 days, potentially even sold at least once before the recent exchange with Ammar Kubba.
We will continue to monitor the situation for any new developments.
