During the past 12 years the Internet in Brazil is being controlled by a fairly small group of people calling themselves CGI.br “Comite Gestor da Internet do Brasil” which main goal is profiting and getting benefits for themselves. ICANN charges about US$0.25 to process a registration for each domain meanwhile in Brazil CGI charges US$ 45.00 back in 1999, US$37.00 in 2002 and today this fee is about US$14.00 a year for each ccTLD domain registration. Some high ranking legislators declared CGI.br group as nonexistent and unconstitutional in fact they are considered to be just like a fake company which does not have a federal tax id # therefore can not operate legally.
By charging these high fees for domain registration their income already passed the 120 million dollars figure. CGI passed a resolution to appoint FAPESP (a foundation which is sponsored by the state of São Paulo) to be the government body responsible to collect the payment however the terms of the payment are quite confusing since FAPESP cannot receive money from the public the payment is disguised as an anonymous donation since FAPESP is not obligated by Brazilian law to identify each company paying for this so called public service therefore no state or federal taxes are collected and no receipt is given. Many Internet users in Brazil are calling this practice “extortion” because there are more than 1 million domains registered unless you DONATE to FAPESP you loose your domain registration.
Many law suits were filled in the Brazilian courts and some police probe is being performed to investigate some serious allegation about the disappearance of these public funds. In addition the Brazilian justice system is investigating if NIC.BR is involved in any money laundering scheme between the years of 2003 and 2005 disguised as subcontract by providing services to FAPESP.
Members of ICANN involved in these schemes;
1- With the help of CGI members Mr. Demi Getschko (an official ICANN elected member) opened a non-profit organization named NIC.BR where Mr. Getschko is the owner/director replacing FAPESP and acting as the ONLY official register without the local or federal government offering public bidding for this transferring process to companies and organizations with the same goals to compete of becoming a registrar. In fact these individuals define the rules and fees as CGI and collect the money as NIC.BR. To give you an example just picture members of ICANN in the United States opening a non-profit organization and this same organization would act as a company like Network Solutions defining the rules and fees however these same members collects US$14.000.000.00 a year for domain registration as a non-profit organization.
2- In 1998 Mr. Ivan Moura Campos coordinator of CGI declared many times that CGI paid US$ 30.000.00 to FAPESP monthly for Internet services at the same time CGI collected US$ 1.200.000.00 monthly for domain registration. At the same time Mr. Campos was the president of NIC.BR administrative board in addition Mr. Campos was founder/partner of Akwan/todobr a Internet search engine which was sold to Google for an estimated US$ 25.000.000.00. We all know the secret of a search engine is having access to all domains in the Brazilian registry system to have the most complete content. Hundreds of Brazilians tried without succeeding creating a search engine service like Yahoo/Cade/Google. 280 search engines are still functioning however AKWAN was the ONLY company acquired by a high price in this market.
Other irregularities are being investigated by the Brazilian authorities like more than 60 thousand illegal domain bidding with rules defined by CGI executed before by FAPESP and now by Mr. Demi Getschko’s NIC.BR which decides who gets the best generic names.
There is almost impossible these things happening in the United States however in Brazil it’s happening right now with ICANN members involved in the schemes. Some strange statements like the one made by CGI’s president Mr. Raphael Mandarino who said; “The Brazilian ccTLD registry system is one of the best in the world and it’s being copied by many countries around the globe, the American model is stupidity as in the US the companies want only to make a profit”. As the most democratic country in the world the US has more than 500 accredited domain registers. In Brazil there’s only ONE accredited name registro.br acting 10 years as FAPESP and now as NIC.BR
CGI was trying to encourage companies to become accredited registrars by offering them a piece of the action something like 10% meaning US$1.40 (The completely opposite from USA) however only 5 companies decided of becoming accredited registrars and now they are liable for all fees related to eventual legal proceedings pertaining to a dispute of any domain registered by these accredited registrars.
In addition Mr. Demi Getschko is updating all information in USA on ICANN contact site from CGI.BR to NIC.BR to trying to make official the private organization NIC.BR which is NOT repeating, is NOT an official public representative.
In the 2003 Tunisian ICANN forum CGI.BR performed a survey with a very strange question; Are you in favor of United States controlling the Internet in the world? The answer was obviously NOT.
Mr. Getschko “The so called OWNER of the Brazilian Internet” DOES not want to give away Internet control in Brazil and could ONLY obtain his title “Very Knowledgeable Person” in this very important high ranking post for being appointed by government high brasses after declaring expenses of more than US$ 10.000.000.00 by CGI. These expenses are very shady since nobody knows for what, where & how. In addition Mr. Getshko could get other high ranking posts such as; assessor of FAPESP’s president, CEO of NIC.BR, OESP’s TI director (one of the most prominent news agency in Brazil), Director of the board for ABRANET (ISP Brazilian Association) .
Unfortunately ICANN is sponsoring Mr. Getschko activities in Brazil by allowing its members under his leadership to practice these kind of wrongdoings creating a negative environment in the Brazilian registry system and penalizing thousands of companies by his anti-democratic practices.
Some legal proceedings in the Brazilian courts;
1- TCU – Tribunal de Contas da Uniao (Brazilian Federal Comptroller) – www.tcu.gov.br lawsuit under file # 012.048/2001-5 TCU against CGI.BR/FAPESP to investigate possible fraud related to undeclared funds collected by registering domains between 2001 and 2005. Because of the delay in investigating possible fraud against public interest almost US$ 175.000.000.00 entered FAPESP as donation collected from domain owners, an illegal practice according to TCU.
2- Federal Police Revenue Division investigating the disappearance of more than US$ 60.000.000.00 of FAPESP funds after probing people’s statement about this issue. Police Inquire – Inquerito 147206 Processo 050060353642-0000.
Abusando.org welcome any information about CGI.BR/FAPESP/NIC.BR lawsuits and legal disputes filed in Brazil or any other country.
Please contact jorgemodesto@abusando.org if you have any question, comment or concern regarding these issues.
