In April 2001, Kremen was awarded the $65 million judgment
against Stephen Cohen, who was found to have stolen the domain name
in 1995 by sending a forged transfer letter to Network
Solutions.
Cohen appealed, but according to James Wagstaffe, Kremen's
attorney, he was discredited “mainly because he is a fugitive from
justice and has blatantly abused the litigation process.”
The judgment represents the likely end of numerous court battles
between plaintiff Gary Kremen of San Francisco and Cohen, currently
of Tijuana, Mexico, over the rights to the lucrative domain
name.
Kremen still awaits the court's decision in a separate appeal
against Network Solutions, now a part of VeriSign. He contends that
it negligently transferred the domain name to Stephen Cohen, who
forged a letter to Network Solutions fraudulently claiming
ownership of sex.com.
Judge Kozinski told VeriSign's attorneys, in reference to the
bogus letter and its obvious forgery, "I mean, this is really
sloppy. You wouldn't approve this if you had seen this letter".
