Press Release

Date: October 12, 2011

Avid Amiri Public Announcement and Response

After two years of harassment both on a local and national level, I feel that I have the right to respond directly to a series of anonymous accusers and explain myself to those who may have read about me on forums or other websites.

Several year ago I bought a home in an affluent, 100% white neighborhood in Salt Lake City. While I cultivated positive relationships with some of the people in this neighborhood, there have been others that let me know right away that they took issue with my Iranian ethnicity and my perceived intrusion into their community. While I felt through goodwill and amiability, I could overcome this, I have been the ongoing victim of hate based activity going back over 5 years. Over the past 2 years these activities have become more intense. Every one of these events have been documented by the police over the course of the last 5 years and include:

Neighbor introducing himself to me by leaving excrement on my front doorstep. The neighbor was so brazen in expressing his hostility, he signed the feces using his personal letterhead along with the waste. The neighbor openly admits to this and this was reported and documented by SLPD. I did not pursue this out of concern for further agitating this person and fear of reprisals.

A different neighbor threw a 20 pound bag of waste at me while walking my dogs on a public sidewalk in my neighborhood. He jumped out from behind a tree in ambush format (a premeditated assault) and the bag struck my girlfriend in the head. This was reported and documented to SLPD and crime lab took photos of the bag as evidence. When the police interviewed the attacker he used racial, hate based language in his description of me as articulated in the police report presumably as a rational for the attack. My girlfriend and I were scared to pursue this for fear of escalating reprisals.

I have received anonymous notes demanding that I move out of the neighborhood. The language accuses me of being an envoy of Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist, a religious fanatic and that I resume my "terrorist" activities in a different state.

I was accused of being a thief and stealing 6 bricks while I was cleaning debris/tripping hazards on a public sidewalk of an proximate neighbor during their construction (this case was dismissed by the SL Courts and it is the basis of one specific anonymous hate site).

I have had a death threats put in my mailbox direct "move or die" ultimatums.

I had the Salt Lake Housing Commission dispatched to my home repeatedly responding to anonymous calls that I was in violation of any conceivable housing code (illegal renting, illegal storage, illegal construction, etc). In every case, the inspector was allowed inside and the accusations were dismissed. I have never been cited for any of these things. The callers (anonymous in every case) have been tracked down by the Salt Lake Police Department again to individuals in my neighborhood.

I have had two mutilated animals left of my doorstep. One of these was a decapitated and disemboweled.

My name was submitted to the South Salt Lake Police Department as a murderer. While this was submitted anonymously, Det. James Rossea of the SLPD tracked down the caller who is again a neighbor. He admits to the police in doing it and blames another neighbor.

While these events sound nothing short of bizarre, they are all actual events and they are all documented by the police. They are hate crimes and terroristic threats against me designed to remove an undesirable middle easterner from a completely white neighborhood. Despite this, I feel this is not something I cannot continue to battle. While the investigation is still in progress, it appears to be a small group of 3-5 individuals living directly in my neighborhood. Detective Rossea, through the issuance of sub peonas to ISPs as well as tracking down call records from anonymous callers was able to recognize that there are some internet savy local individuals. I believe the harassment is designed to push me out of the neighborhood. They have been using scare tactics, threats, harassment, even professional reputation destruction, to hurt me in any way they can.

In addition to the local harassment and crimes against me listed above, the campaign has been holistic and involves an internet campaign designed to strike at my professional reputation. These include websites and forum postings. In one, what began as a legitimate potential client looking for valuation advice was hijacked by anonymous individual claiming that they are former clients and claiming that I was a "scam artist". Not surprisingly, the first defamatory attack focuses on detailed aspects of my house and then goes on to vilify my business although gives no specifics as to what website I worked on or who they are. I responded to this post, and I have asked any of these people, if they were real clients to give me a call so I can assist them. To date, I have not received a single call. While I have attempted to defend myself in these forums as well as get them removed for obvious defamation (all this is chronicled in one of the forums), I was told that any legal action against the forum would result in a "Google Bomb" against me (the forum owner and his friends mirroring the content across thousands of sites). As things elapsed, any genuine attempt to provide letters of reference from previous clients, cite my credentials, professorial background, etc. would be rejected by yet another wave of anonymous accusations labeling me as a fraud despite the strength of my professional career.

One example, the most recent posting on one of these sites purports to be someone claiming to be a friend of an individual with whom I had a trademark case, Gregory Dodson, of Truckmaster Logistics Software. The case went to the ICANN arbitration forum and I won the case on all the grounds (see http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/1250273.htm). After the loss, the complainant, Mr. Dodson, had the right to further pursue the case in the federal court and we ended up with lawsuits against one another. After a discussion with my attorney it became clear that the cost of the litigation would rapidly exceed the value of the domain (at the time I had several hundred other domains of comparable value), and I relinquished my position. While Mr. Dodson and I had a disagreement about the domain, he and I, I believe, share a profession respect for one another. In fact I received the below email from him in July:

> Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:23:16 -0600
> From: greg@truckmaster.com
> To: avidamiri@hotmail.com
> Subject: Possible Business Proposition
>
> Hi Avid,
>
> I'm sure you find it odd that I'm contacting you.. So do I as a
> matter of fact, lol.
>
> I'm needing some help getting my Google rankings up for "trucking
> software", and I guess I can't think of anyone better than you in doing
> this. You did a pretty good job of promoting "truck parts" for it in the
> relatively short time that you had it.
>
> Are you interested in helping me out on this? If so, what would you
> charge for this service?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Greg Dodson
> TruckMaster Logistics Systems, Inc.

Just before that, a spurious individual leaves a post claiming that they are friends of Mr. Dodson. You may see the posting below:

1. Hi all,

I realize this is a somewhat dated thread, but I just found it, and feel that I can still contribute to it..

I live in Jerome, ID, the same small town in which TruckMaster Logistics Systems is based. Many of us here in town know the full story of what happened, and I assure you that Avid Amiri was not simply someone who took advantage of someone's failure to renew a domain. I asked the owner of the business to look at this thread and comment, but he told me that in conjunction with the settlement that Amiri signed, he signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Nevertheless, I and many others in this town know the details of what happened prior to any agreement signing, and would be glad to let any prospective buyers of Mr. Amiri's services know what they're dealing with, privately.. It's second-hand knowledge, but it's verifiable.

[[Deleted - crime related links that have nothing to do with a business/web business. As I've mentioned to some posters via PM, I'm not going to allow any links and discussion that are off-topic. If someone has had a dispute with a neighbour, or divorced his wife or been involved in a DUI incident - not that all of these happened here (they didn't) - it is not relevant to the discussion on these boards - Clinton (admin) July 11, 2011]]

...Guess his lawyers weren't able to scare them from taking down these records.

I've got to tell you, Clinton, I've gained much respect for you in the way that you handled this guy. He's a unique piece of work (luckily), and you da man for holding your ground with him. The only other guy I've ever seen (and I've done research) handle this guy as well is Greg Dodson, the owner of TruckMaster Logistics Systems (www.truckmaster.com), in getting his property back from this experienced scam artist, where many have failed.

It is worth noting here, that I have never had a DUI or been divorced. Disputes with neighbors are the subject of a current hate investigation against me by Det. Rossea. Of course it is impossible to level a response against this because it is once again anonymous person making broad accusations that I am a scam artist. Further, the owner of the forum refuses to do the responsible thing and allows anyone to post just about anything he feel will add content and scandal to his forum after the minimum of editing.

In short, over 10 years, I have never been involved in a litigation of any kind with any previous client nor been sued by any past client. In fact, outside of a trademark dispute where I won per Internet Arbitration Forum, ICANN, I have never been involved in any litigation where my professional reputation was questioned. I have a strong portfolio of happy former client that would attest to such. I have never convicted of any crime and any attempts by neighbors to accuse me of such have been dismissed. I have worked hard as a first generation Iranian American. I hold an MBA from Cornell University and taught Graduate level business courses at the Gore School of Business for over 4 years and have clients who havce achieved million dollar returns on website I have developed and sold. I am happy to share their names and numbers.

To my friends and family, please know that I am fine and have since left the neighborhood in fear of the safety of myself and my family. I am fine and my relationship with my business partners remains strong although I am not actively involved in ecommerce at this time.

To those of you who have any information on these attacks, please forward this to Det. Rossea. For those behind it, please know that there is an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Salt Lake Police Department and the truth of your involvement will come out.

For any legitimate clients interested in reaching out, please contact me Avid Amiri at avidamiri@hotmail.com. Thanks.