[Updated] According to a statement from Oversee.net’s SnapNames, an employee was found to have bid in 5% of their auctions since 2005 and in some cases arranged for a partial refund of the sales price after winning an auction. DNN also confirmed the bidder as Nelson Brady, the VP of Engineering. He was bidding under the username “halvarez”.

In a statement issued today, the company offers compensation to any potentially affected customer:

To avoid any question about whether the company benefited from this conduct, SnapNames will offer a rebate to impacted customers, including 5.22% interest (the highest applicable federal rate during the affected time period), of the difference between the prices they paid in winning auctions, and the prices they would have paid had the employee not bid in the auctions. Impacted customers will be notified by SnapNames or its representative with instructions for the offer of a rebate.

SnapNames also has taken further action to ensure its policies regarding auctions are followed, and the company remains committed to taking whatever action is necessary to protect the integrity of its auction platform.

SnapNames deeply regrets this situation and is committed to addressing its customers’ needs quickly and fairly.

Customers with questions may contact SnapNames at support@snapnames.com or via phone at +1 (866) 690-6279 (toll-free in the U.S.) and +1 (503) 241-8547 (outside the U.S.). The company has also posted a FAQ on their website.

The employee has been dismissed from the company and SnapNames is further investigating the incident.

For years, the domain community has questioned specific bidding practices by at least one frequent bidder with the user name “halvarez” . Forum posts have questioned and speculated on this bidder’s unusual activity for many years and SnapNames officials confirmed today that this user name is indeed the internal employee.  We now also know that the employee was the VP of Engineering, Nelson Brady, as confirmed by a spokesperson of the company. . . .

AMAZING !

Adam Strong also contributed to this post.

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