March 13, 2012
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Ernesto Gabriel Haberli was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $449,711.15 in restitution for mail fraud, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced.
Haberli pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2011 to seven counts of mail fraud. According to the plea agreement, Haberli admitted to perpetrating a scheme to defraud Cisco Systems Inc.(Cisco) of more than $400,000 of computer networking equipment. Haberli schemed to defraud Cisco Systems under the SMARTnet service contract program, where Cisco agreed to provide customers with technical support, including advance hardware replacement, which allowed customers to obtain replacement equipment from Cisco immediately, without having first to return the broken part.
Haberli, 39, of Houston, worked as an employee of The Internet Group, a Texas corporation engaged in the business of offering Internet services to individuals and companies. According to court documents, from August 2006 to July 2007, Haberli fraudulently reported to Cisco more than ten times that he was in possession of more than fifty failed Cisco networking parts that were covered under the SMARTnet warranty program, causing Cisco to send fifty-one computer networking parts to Haberli as replacements. Haberli sold the equipment to unsuspecting third parties, sometimes before requesting the part from Cisco and at other times shortly after receiving the part.
Haberli was charged by information on Sept. 29, 2011. He was charged with seven counts of mail fraud for lying to Cisco about the failure of their networking equipment in order to obtain high-value replacement computer networking parts at no cost.
The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Davila following a guilty plea on seven counts in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341 and 2 – mail fraud and aiding and abetting. Judge Davila also sentenced the defendant to a three-year period of supervised release, and ordered the defendant to pay restitution of $449,711.25 to Cisco. The defendant is scheduled to begin serving the sentence on June 21, 2012.
Richard C. Cheng is the Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted the case, with the assistance of legal technician Tracey Andersen. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The following is my experience and opinion in doing business with Ernesto Haberli and AvidHosting.com:
WARNING: DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH AVIDHOSTING.COM!
NOTE: This site does not make a profit, does not sell hosting or any product in direct competition with Avidhosting.com, nor does it infringe on any TM, as Avidhosting is not trademarked.The domain was not purchased in bad faith (to resell) and there is no intention to do so.
"Hi all--My name is Atlantis Black and I am organizing a class-action lawsuit against avidhosting.com. If you or your site has been affected by the crash and would like to join me or participate in any way, feel free to email me at atlantisblack@gmail.com Thank you. --AB"
"Atlantis Black has been in touch with several class action attorneys who are about to come onboard with our case — we just need a few more stories to make it a legitimate class action lawsuit. Anyone who has a copy of their contract with Avidhosting please email it to atlantisblack@gmail.com — we will be compensated in full."
12/12/07 Update: Ahhhh..............Ernesto sounds like such a swell guy, doeesn't he! LOL Ahhh...............he gives his heartfelt apologies! What!? for the nightmare he created!!! "We reiterate our heartfelt apologies for these outages!" Note: Avidhosting.com AGAIN has another form to fill out. I think I'd prefer just working with Enom IMO and hope that they get you through this. I wouldn't trust Haberli as far as I could throw him!
UPDATE NOTICE: 11/29/07 Due to the recent crash of Avidhosting, I have posted emails, from Avid's customers and an updates page with helpful information. Read emails....Read updates....
LOST YOUR DOMAIN TO AVIDHOSTING?
Contact Enom! They SHOULD be helping with this nightmare! Try contacting ICAAN!!! See if they will help with this nightmare! See my UPDATES page for more information. There may be something there that will help you get started.
Received this information from one of the Avid customers and she gave me permission to post it. We hope it will help the rest of you reclaim your domains. Contact Elida Flores at Enom. Email her at customercare@enom.com. Enom WILL HELP! Create an Enom account at www.eNomCentral.com and email them verification of domain ownership through an invoice showing payment made to AvidHosting. Enom will then transfer the domains to your Enom account. They will also provide a transfer key to do this.
AVIDHOSTING SAYS THEY WILL RELEASE AND APPROVE TRANSFERS...
...of all the domains that do not have any pending balances on the accounts. Fill out the form on their site Avidhosting.com and pay BY CHECK ONLY.
And this form comes and goes. First it's there, then it's not. Is it bogus? I can't make that decision for you, but I don't trust Ernesto Haberli to play nice.
Proceed with caution. Avid has been known to debit credit cards and checking accounts without authorization. They did it to me, and I have emails stating they have done it to other people. I would use a checking account that has very little money in it, maybe even enough JUST to pay what you owe to Avid, if anything, and then close the account. In my opinion, I wouldn't be trusting anyone on this. But I know you have no choice but to risk it to get your domain returned. Good luck to everyone! Please keep me posted on the return of your domains. I'd like to be able to update with success stories!
WHO IS For AvidHosting.com
Registration Service Provided By: VIP-Hosting.com.ve
Contact: dominios@vip-hosting.com.ve
Visit: http://www.vip-hosting.com.ve
Domain name: avidhosting.com
Registrant Contact:
NA
Inc. AvidHosting (domain@avidhosting.com)
NA
Fax:
2835 Aurora Ave.
Suite 115-367
Naperville, IL 60540
US
Administrative Contact:
VIP-Hosting.com.ve
VIP- Hosting (dominios@vip-hosting.com.ve)
+1.2123931609
Fax:
Caracas
Caracas, 1000
VE
Technical Contact:
VIP-Hosting.com.ve
VIP- Hosting (dominios@vip-hosting.com.ve)
+1.2123931609
Fax:
Caracas
Caracas, 1000
VE
Name Servers:
dns3.avidhosting.com
dns4.avidhosting.com
server.traceroute.net
This happened to me months before this recent crash! I was so hoping enough people would read it when I put it up and put it on every SE possible, that it would save someone else from the anguish I had to go through! The scum bags!
Avidhosting.com NEEDS to be stopped. People need to STOP giving them business, or IMO you may lose your domain too!
It is my opinion that AvidHosting.com is UNETHICAL, UNPROFESSIONAL and criminal!
I had numerous domains and hosting with AvidHosting.com. I had been with them for several years.
According to their tech support, they told me the owner died. (I found out later that Ernesto Haberli had purchased Avidhosting). Avid's support failed miserably after that, so I proceeded to move my domains and hosting to another company. However, AvidHosting.com had immediately removed my sites, suspended my account and my support control panel so that I was unable to transfer my own domains. AFTER sending many emails and receiving ZERO support from AvidHosting.com, AvidHosting.com told me over the phone they REFUSED to help me. I became EXTREMELY frustrated and angry with them. Their support is the worst!AvidHosting.com was angry because I took 4 clients with me plus my own domains and hosting.
I then proceeded to get my own domains back — by myself, with no help from Avid. It took me a month working with a different domain company and ICAAN and Tucows (which Avid uses as their domain registrar) and finally threats to AvidHosting.com that if they did not return MY DOMAINS (they were in my name) that I would turn them in to ICAAN, my attorney would proceed with litigation, AND I would put up a website with my experience and my opinion in dealing with them.
They immediately wrote back (after they had not been responding to me for a month) and said there was no need to contact my attorney.
I thought I was home free. But guess what? They began billing me without my authorization and debiting my bank account. That is fraud in my opinion. I was on a month-to-month plan, so when I cancelled they immediately suspended my account and removed my web sites, locked my domains, then continued to bill me in advance. They did that for 3 months! I was forced to cancel my credit card. And the cretins actually thought they were holding the CONTENT of my sites hostage also, IDIOTS! along with the domain! What a joke! The sites were developed on my computer! I had all the content!
My bank backcharged Avid for at least one of the months. And a bank wouldn't backcharge a business if they didn't feel the proof was positive. I didn't pursue the first 2 months thinking this would all go away and they could just have the $69.20 and the $40. Then Avid had the audacity to demand I pay them back the "backcharge"!!
On May 5, I was no longer doing business with AvidHosting.com. They were not hosting my websites at that time. On May 7, 2007 they billed me $69.20 for advance billing for the next month's hosting. That charge was unauthorized. I told them so. But they blocked all my emails, and any email I sent to support@Avidhosting.com or Billing@AvidHosting.com was bounced. Even my support tickets and phone calls were ignored. And I could no longer get on my control panel to SEND a support ticket using that method.
On June 4, 2007 they blantantly billed me another $40. That charge was ALSO unauthorized.
On June 5, 2007 they again advance billed me for another $40 which was to be debited on July 3. That's when I realized this wouldn't stop.I figured the first $69 wasn't worth the fight, and even the second $40, but then when they kept taking money from my account I realized they would never stop unless I canceled my business accounts and credit cards. So they totally inconvenienced me. I even canceled my online domain and business name, meaning I needed all new business cards, stationery, etc. for my business. In my opinion, this is blantant fraud because they were NOT authorized to continue debiting my bank account, especially because my account was suspended.
I have written Avid numerous emails to which they do not respond and of course are bounced. I KNOW they have blocked my emails because I created a Yahoo account and sent them an email using an alias and that one did NOT bounce! AvidHosting.com also does not respond to any phone messages.
I am warning the public to NOT DO BUSINESS with AVIDHOSTING.COM. Again, it is my opinion that AvidHosting.com is unethical, unprofessional, and from my experience it is my opinion they WILL CHEAT YOU JUST LIKE THEY ARE CHEATING ME!
I am expressing my First Amendment Constitutional right — freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press..... I have a right under the Constitution of the United States of America to express my opinion about the services that were NOT rendered to me by Avidhosting. I have no intention of profiting from this domain, nor am I in direct competition with Avidhosting. I am not selling hosting or any of their services.
So to reiterate -- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! IMO do not do business with Avidhosting.com!
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