EstDomains was a website hosting provider and a Delaware corporation headquartered in downtown Tartu, Estonia.[1][2][3] EstDomains was known for hosting websites with malware, child pornography, and other illegal content.[1][4] Brian Krebs of the Washington Post stated that EstDomains "appeared to be the registrar of choice for the infamous Russian Business Network."[1] EstDomains was one of the largest domain registrars in the world.[3] By 2007 EstDomains gained a reputation for hosting illegal content.[5]
The CEO, Vladimir Tšaštšin (also known as "SCR"), received a prison sentence for credit card fraud, document forgery, and money laundering.[1][3] His conviction occurred on 6 February 2008.[6] On 28 October 2008, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it would revoke the accreditation of EstDomains because of the CEO's convictions; the revocation would occur on 12 November 2008.[7][8] On 29 October ICANN said it would delay shutting down EstDomains, pending a review. EstDomains said that Tšaštšin had resigned on June of that year and that his conviction is on appeal,[9] while EstDomains had not notified ICANN of the change.[6] On 12 November 2008 ICANN announced that EstDomains would be shut down on 24 November 2008.[10] According to ICANN, when the accreditation was terminated, EstDomains had 281,000 domain names. On Tuesday 25 November 2008 web host ResellerClub announced that it is taking over EstDomains's business.[11]
Iain Thompson of Australian PC Authority ranked Tšaštšin as the tenth worst technology business chief executive.[12]
On November 9, 2011 the FBI announced[13] the arrest of Tšaštšin & Poltev in Operation Ghost Click.[14]