nanog mailing list archives

Re: AFRINIC placed in receivership


From: Eric Kuhnke <eric.kuhnke () gmail com>
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2023 17:30:09 -0700

I'm not quite sure that we agree on the meaning of "legitimate application"
when a HK based corporate entity is using and claiming permanent rights to
AFRINIC IP space, primarily for ISP operations in east asia.

There have been multiple well documented instances of AFRINIC insiders with
privileged access shoveling IP space out the back door by less than
legitimate means. For a number of different suspicious recipients.

Undoubtedly this is part of what contributed to its board members and
management fleeing the organization in the face of litigation and
investigations.

The fact that these organizations that received IP space by less than
honest means are now suing AFRINIC into financial oblivion honestly does
not help the situation.



On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 5:04 PM Delong.com <owen () delong com> wrote:

Noe… You are conflating two completely different cases, sir.

CI submitted legitimate applications and their addresses were issued prior
to Ernest’s activities.

You’re mixing Lu Heng up with Elad Cohen.

Owen


On Sep 15, 2023, at 16:32, Eric Kuhnke <eric.kuhnke () gmail com> wrote:


https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/1813989-the-strange-case-of-africas-stolen-ip-addresses


https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Ernest+Byaruhanga+afrinic

On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 4:30 PM Eric Kuhnke <eric.kuhnke () gmail com> wrote:

AFRINIC legitimately issued those (closer to 6M) IP addresses to Cloud
Innovation based on justifications submitted. AFRINIC then attempted, using
claims that usage out of region is not permitted by the bylaws
(It is not prohibited by the bylaws, feel free to read them yourself), to
reclaim those addresses.

This is not what happened. AFRINIC issued those IP addresses to Cloud
Innovations based on fundamental misrepresentations by the applicant and
internal fraudulent activity conducted by a single employee within AFRINIC.



On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 4:17 PM Delong.com <owen () delong com> wrote:



On Sep 15, 2023, at 15:05, Eric Kuhnke <eric.kuhnke () gmail com> wrote:

A much better explanation of the situation can be found at:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/nrs_afrinic_review/

I also recommend that everyone who is not yet familiar with the issue
google Lu Heng and Cloud Innovations, the Hong Kong based corporate entity
in question which caused this.


Fair suggestion, but I wouldn’t say it’s fair to say Lu Heng or CI
caused this. I’d say that AFRINIC’s
leadership at the time had an at least equal role in creating the
problems and in failing to address
Them in a timely manner.

CI didn’t sue AFRINIC for nothing. AFRINIC, in violation of the actual
text of their bylaws attempted
to revoke CI space and created major disruptions to a number of networks
in the process. Had CI
not received the injunctions they got from the courts, likely the
disruption would have been much
worse and caused some pretty wide-spread outages.



https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lu+heng+cloud+innovation

The short version of this is that a HK based corporate entity claims it
is the legitimate "owner" of 7 million AFRINIC IPs.


AFRINIC legitimately issued those (closer to 6M) IP addresses to Cloud
Innovation based on justifications submitted. AFRINIC then attempted, using
claims that usage out of region is not permitted by the bylaws
(It is not prohibited by the bylaws, feel free to read them yourself),
to reclaim those addresses.

AFRINIC whois and the courts have confirmed that Cloud Innovation is the
rightful registrant of those
addresses at the time and as of now. Until a court rules otherwise
(which is very unlikely at this point),
they don’t “own” the addresses, but they do “own” the rights to those
registrations in the AFRINIC
database.

(Nobody “owns” any integers… Everyone remains equally free to use the
number 5 as much as they want.)

Owen






On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 6:09 AM Bryan Fields <Bryan () bryanfields net>
wrote:

On 9/13/23 9:27 PM, Bryan Fields wrote:
I think this qualifies as potentially operational.

Afrinic placed in receivership, board elections to be held in six
months:
https://archive.ph/jOFE4

Looks like archive.ph is having problems.  This is the original
article.


https://www.capacitymedia.com/article/2c6pnx4ymt7sd5c493wg0/news/exclusive-afrinic-placed-in-receivership-board-elections-to-be-held-in-six-months
--
Bryan Fields

727-409-1194 - Voice
http://bryanfields.net





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