With Bilking Lumber Liquidators with Domain Purchases — Man Charged

Virginia man allegedly pays himself by selling domains to his employer.

Justin Godfrey, founder of domain name escrow service EscrowDNS, began to think something was wrong.

Joshua Everett, an e-commerce manager with Lumber Liquidators, started doing a lot of business through EscrowDNS.com in November 2008. He purchased a number of domains on behalf of Lumber Liquidators. At first he purchased them from a firm called DNS Investing. Later, a firm called Delorean Law Group signed up for an account at EscrowDNS and started selling domains to Lumber Liquidators as well.

Oddly, many of the domains Everett was buying for Lumber Liquidators were recently registered typos of Lumber Liquidator’s trademarks. Then, when EscrowDNS sent out a promotional letter to Delorean Law Group, it was returned “No such address”.

Godfrey decided he ought to look into the firm. He worked with his other firm, DNinvestigation, to research Delorean.

Using historical whois, the firm found an address for Delorean’s domain name that matched that of DNS Investing, linking the two firms together. As a result, Godfrey then believed that the firms were operated by the same person and were potentially set up for the purpose of selling domains to Lumber Liquidators.

Godfrey requested copies of the canceled checks that were sent to both firms. They were signed by the people who set up accounts for each firm: Lisa Mendoza and (redacted) Grace. One of Godfrey’s employees then stumbled upon a blog written by Everett’s wife, Lisa. On the blog, Lisa wrote regarding their daughter (redacted). Then it clicked. Godfrey suspected Everett, the Lumber Liquidators employee, was purchasing domain names from himself with Lumber Liquidators’ funds. He believed Everett used his wife’s and daughter’s names as the contacts for the firms he set up.

In the meantime, Everett was on a buying spree. His wife’s blog chronicled big purchases, counting a fresh home complete with fine leather sofas and flat panel TVs.

But in an instant this past March, everything changed. With much consternation, Godfrey contacted Lumber Liquidators and told them what he had discovered. (Lumber Liquidators declined to comment for this story.)

Everett was arrested on August 17 by James County police for obtaining money by false pretenses, a felony. He is now free on bail. All told, EscrowDNS paid out more than $100,000 to DNS Investing and Delorean Law Group for domain transactions.

Everett’s wife has started a fresh blog regarding picking up the pieces. She states she feels betrayed, but is trying to move on.

With every step of his firm’s investigation, Godfrey’s heart churned. “By all accounts, Mr. Everett was a stand up guy,” stated Godfrey. “I did everything to steer the suspicions away from him as I had created a personal bond with him over time, but the evidence was simply overwhelming. It took a lot of inner strength for me to call Lumber Liquidators. Though it did hurt for me to turn him in, since he has a modest child, I knew it was the right thing to do.”

Godfrey recalls his days in the Air Force, when he was taught “Integrity First”, a motto he still tries to live by today. In a statement released to Reglike, Godfrey wrote:

“We take our clients’ security very seriously at EscrowDNS and we simply cannot facilitate these types of activities. I wish the best to Mr. Everett and his family, and hopefully there are lessons to be learned by everyone involved.”