Every device you own that touches the internet has a unique fingerprint. A string of numbers called an Internet Protocol, or IP, address. It’s your digital home address. In the early days of the internet, these addresses were plentiful. But one version, known as IPv4, became the bedrock of the modern web, and by 2011, the world had officially run out of new ones.
This scarcity turned IPv4 addresses into a kind of digital real estate, immensely valuable to the companies that need them to operate. Overseeing the fair distribution of the remaining addresses in the United States is a single nonprofit gatekeeper: the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN).
And Amir Golestan, the founder of a tech company called Micfo, LLC, figured out how to take illegally advantage of the whole situation.
This story that I’m writing about right now is a story about an old-fashioned con artist who built a ghost empire of fake companies and phantom executives to trick ARIN into handing over the keys to a digital kingdom. It’s a tale of a multi-million dollar fraud that ended not with a bang like my dramapilled readers might hope for, but with a series of desperate, last-ditch legal maneuvers to escape the consequences of a guilty plea.
Golestan’s scheme was both simple and audacious. His company, Micfo, legitimately needed some IP addresses for its web hosting business. But as the well of available IPv4 addresses ran dry, ARIN tightened its requirements, demanding justification for every new block it assigned. So, around 2014, the lying ass Golestan went into the fiction business.
He created a network of shell companies, referred to as “Channel Partners,” whose only purpose was to exist on paper. He then invented people, complete with names and titles, to serve as the officers of these make-believe firms. Armed with fraudulent documents from his ghost companies, Golestan bombarded ARIN with requests, manufacturing a seemingly legitimate need for more and more IP addresses.
It worked. ARIN, deceived by the elaborate fiction, handed over approximately 1.3 million valuable IPv4 addresses. Golestan then turned around and sold some of this digital real estate on the secondary market, pocketing a cool $3.3 million in pure profit. His scheme only unraveled when he got greedy and tried to sell another $6 million worth of addresses, triggering a “red flag” at ARIN that finally exposed the entire plot.
From Mastermind to Cornered Defendant
The unravelling of Golestan’s digital empire led to a 20-count federal indictment for wire fraud. His day in court, however, was a spectacular flameout. After a day and a half of trial, Golestan’s defense counsel admitted he couldn’t produce any evidence that the “Channel Partners” were real. Faced with the testimony of eight government witnesses, Golestan’s case collapsed. He abruptly switched his plea to guilty, both for himself and for his company.
Coward.
| Date | Event | Outcome | |
| Beginning 2014 | Amir Golestan begins his fraudulent scheme to acquire IP addresses. | He creates fake companies and invents fake executives to deceive ARIN. | |
| Over several years | The scheme succeeds, and Golestan and Micfo acquire 1.3 million IPv4 addresses. | Golestan sells a portion of the addresses, making | $3.3 million in profit. |
| Date of discovery | Golestan attempts to sell an additional $6 million worth of IP addresses. | ARIN “red flags” and blocks the transfer, uncovering the fraud. | |
| During trial | Golestan’s defense collapses after he is unable to prove his shell companies were legitimate. | He changes his plea from not guilty to | guilty on all 20 counts of wire fraud. |
| Post-plea | Golestan files a motion to withdraw his guilty plea before sentencing. | He argues a Supreme Court case invalidates his prosecution and that the court made procedural errors. | |
| August 22, 2025 | The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejects all of his arguments. | The guilty plea and convictions are | affirmed. |
I initially had a whole bunch of additional text here (close to a thousand words) on the court fights and such, but I figured you guys probably don’t care so I’ve deleted them. Anywho, that’s all I got for you for now. The next article on www.evilcorporations.com will get published in ~3 hours as always.
All factual claims in this article are sourced from the published opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in U.S. v. Golestan, No. 23-4583, decided August 22, 2025.
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