Companies claim Sex.com owner in debt over $10 million.
Three creditors filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Sex.com owner Escom, LLC today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.
The petition, obtained by Domain Name Wire (pdf), lists three creditors, all of which appear to have investor and BuyDomains founder Mike Mann as the chairman. All three entities have the same address in Potamac, Maryland:
Washington Technology Associates, claiming $6,607,803.66
iEntertainment, Inc. claiming $3,476,515.02
AccountingMatters.com, LLC $7,800.00
The total claims are $10,092,118.68
This should mean that Thursday’s planned auction of Sex.com will be postponed.
In earlier comments to Domain Name Wire, Mann said “I am merely an investor who got completely railroaded by other investors with big guns, bad practices, and bad attitudes.”
Mann had said he was going to take legal action to prevent the auction, but this was certainly last minute.
As the case moves forward, more details about what went wrong will likely become public.
FX says
I believe i’ve said in previous posts that this auction will never happen or if does the new owner will get stuck with shit tone of legal bills. I think i should write a new book about sex.com, cuz this saga is gonna get as interesting as the last one 🙂
Andrew Allemann says
I’m surprised to see $10 million in secured debt to two of these companies. Secured by what, the domain name? I would imagine DOM Partners has the secured rights.
Steve M says
I like FX’s general idea; though I think it’d best be accomplished with a new edition of the original book.
I do hope Mike and the other creditors get their money back.
Ramiro Canales says
$10 million is a lot of debt. Interestingly, accountingmatters.com is for sale for $110,000 at Domain Market.
domainster says
What went wrong is the owners had no idea how to make money in the adult space. I bet you A-1 could make sex.com a $10 a year grossing business within 1.5 years time. Just takes the proper management team.
Josh says
From creation dates of those corps someone wanted a degree of seperation, thats certainly blown now. Id be interested in knowing who these other investors are though because so far it looks like all three above are one guy.
JS says
.. and that one guy says he’s been pushed around by other investors (?)
I don’t get it.
Jim Davies says
There seems to be some sort of curse or something on this domain – a bit like certain diamonds and stolen artifacts are said to bring bad luck. 🙁
pitiful says
When things were going good for Mike, he let everyone know what a great domainer he was. But when things went bad, he blames everyone else for the failed website except himself. He claims to be a mere investor and was railroaded by other people. When you plunk down that kind of money for a domain, wouldn’t you think you had some sort of control over its content and how to make it profitable? Don’t blame others for your own failings. You take the good with the bad and when things go bad, man up!
Mike Mann says
One would think they should have control when they pay that sort of money and have a contract ensuring it, unless they get railroaded of course.
Josh says
@Mike Mann, curious, are all 3 of those lenders listed in fact you? If not are you saying each has multiple individuals involved?
Thank you