Dallas Mavericks: Now connected to Rick Latona!
This is the final chapter of an incredible story that catapults Rick Latona to the topmost tier of domainers possessing personal and professional honor.
Despite his recent announcement to put DigiPawn and DigiLoan up for sale, Rick Latona has now performed a very honorable deed.
But let’s roll back a few months.
In November of 2010 we alerted the domain community that the domain name GUI.com had been stolen.
The domain thief, apparently from India, managed to hold the domain GUI.com hostage for several months, changed its WHOIS to bogus info and moved it from eNom to GoDaddy.
In the process, he tried to sell it on DNForum and then on Flippa.com – where he was busted.
The domain, however, remained in the thief’s hands – until he made a crucial mistake: he pawned it at DigiPawn.
We always follow-up on stories of stolen domains and five weeks ago we noticed that WHOIS change and immediately notified Rick Latona.
Rick was completely unaware of the fact that this premium domain name had been stolen. The many lies told by the thief managed to trick Rick into exchanging the domain for a monetary cash loan in the low $xx,xxx range.
Back in November when we contacted the domain’s legitimate owner, we were met with disbelief at first but soon enough it was evident that their own attempt to manage this top tier domain was failing. We gave Rick Latona the rightful owner’s information and sure enough, Rick – despite his initial shock from realizing that a monetary loss was imminent – contacted them.
A few days passed and we were contacted by the legitimate owner of the domain, who mentioned that a transfer was pending; the return of the domain back in their hands was the combination of efforts between themselves, eNom, GoDaddy and Rick Latona.
There was, however a gigantic surprise: the domain is the personal property of no other than Mark Cuban, successful entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team!
Rick Latona and Mark Cuban are now connected!
As of today, the domain GUI.com is in the hands of its rightful owner. The same thief has also managed to steal other short domains that we are still tracking.
Rick Latona took a substantial financial hit with this domain transfer of the domain back to its legitimate owner, and for this he is highly commendable. In the small, niche market of our domain industry such acts of selflessness truly stand out.
Kudos to Rick for doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing but it’s always good to have karma owe you one once in a while.
Good job Rick!
Good for him. Was he able to track down the thief to get the money back?
Adam – Absolutely agree, a class act.
Great news indeed! And kudos to Rick. Morality and a noble soul are what distinguishes real domainers from all others in the industry.
Gnanes – This is still under wraps.
Joe – I fully agree.
Rick is a damn good guy for doing what he did.
These positive domaining stories need 1000x more exposure!
But NOOOOOOOOOO….
Its always the Bob Parsons/Elephant Killing/Snap Schill Bidding/Privacy Peeking/Trademark Infringing/Cybersquatting domaining stories that seem to get the most coverage in our Industry, which is why we have such a bad image to others.
Thx for posting!
Good point, Vito. So spread the word 😀
“…In the small, niche market of our domain industry such acts of selfishness truly stand out….”
You mean “selfLESSNESS”, mate……..Not, ‘selfISHNESS”…..Lol
Great stuff, Rick Latona….Very generous.
….But….
….Mark Cuban should, imo, totally reimburse Rick L for whatever he is out of pocket for…..After all, it was Mark Cuban who had his name stolen – and, Mark Cuban that gets it back. He should bear the cost, not the innocent guy in the middle.
Chris – Embarrassing typo 🙁 Fixed.