9/10/2003 -- The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) came one step closer to being the first certification program to successfully sue an overseas braindumper this month after identifying who it says are the real owners of the site CheatExams.com, as well as tracking down information on the site’s financial transactions.

As CertCities.com reported last month, when CompTIA originally filed its copyright suit against the owners of CheatExams.com in February, it named a Florida-based individual, George Jennings, who was the registrant according to Whois. It amended the complaint in May to name the more recent registrant Adarsha Computers, which listed a Denmark address.

However, according to another amended complaint filed with the court August 5, CompTIA states that those registrants were false, and the real owners of the site are Mala Premaney and Tushar Bhagat, both with addresses in Pune, India. CompTIA states that it was provided this information by a third-party source, which it did not name. Google searches confirm that a Premaney has been associated with an Adarsha Computers based in India.

It also states that Premaney and Bhagat also operate TroyTec.com/Testkiller.com, which re-opened earlier this year under controversy over the identity of the new owners. (Click here to read the story as well as background on legal cases surrounding these sites. Note: The Whois registration has since changed to a Gary Ritchie in Pune, India).

The ownership connection between CheatExams.com and TroyTec.com appears to be verified by recent events: CheatExams.com has been closed, stating that "We have merged with our Web site ...http://troytec.com." Troytec also recently pulled all CompTIA-related products from its site, citing generic legal concerns.

According to detailed court records recently obtained by CertCities.com, in the civil suit, which alleges trademark infringement, theft of trade secrets, and other violations along with copyright infringement, CompTIA is asking the court for $497,234.10 -- the amount it says the defendants earned in total through CheatExams.com. CompTIA did not give a source for that amount, stating only that it learned it through "investigations." It also states that revenues from the site were being transferred from First Union National Bank to an account in India.

According to the most recent court docket, in a hearing Sept. 3, Judge Stephan R. Underhill, U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Bridgeport, granted CompTIA a preliminary injunction in the case in part due to the identity deception as well as the merits of the case. However, he declined to grant CompTIA a summary judgment at that time. CertCities.com is attempting to verify the reason for this as well as the specifics of the injunction

This deception appears to go back to October 2002, when CompTIA first began corresponding with the owners of CheatExams.com about the CompTIA-related content. The court filings include an e-mail exchange in which the defendants purportedly use the name John Connor to correspond with CompTIA outside counsel Matthew Lundy, of Bridgeport-based Pullman & Comley, LLC.

In the exchange, "Connor" shares the following about CheatExams.com's operations and source of material:

"We had started our CompTIA section only 10-12 days before we received your e-mail and fortunately, have not sold a price till (sic) date. So, I don't think there's any question of a loss being occurred to CompTIA. We are not a very high earning web site like like the types of cheet-sheets or testking. We sell only a product or two on any working day...

...Using these guides, a few good technical books, the Internet super highway and our professional experience, we developed all of our own study guides.

Testking.com, real-exams.,com, examsheets.net, ezypoass.net, 2bcertified.net, itpasszone.,com, smarktcertify.com, certifysky.com, exam rare.com, certify.com, ucertify.com, chinaITcertify.com, cert21.com, transcender.com, measureup.com, cheet-sheet.com, getcertifiedforless.com, exactexams.com, are a few common sites from where we used (sic) to get the questions.

Though we are a small company, we took all care while selling our study guides for not to get into any legal complications with any company. Due to the fear that the companies from which we purchase study guides maybe selling real stuff, we modify all of our questions, pictures & exhibits too, so that our study guides are in now way similar to the real tests..."

Throughout the e-mail exchange, which continues into early November, Lundy, repeatedly requests to speak to Connor directly via phone. At the end of the exchange, Lundy writes:

"Your communication raises numerous issues that may only be fully addressed in the context of a meaningful discussion. Unfortunately, you have declined to provide me with your contact information and I am unable to speak to you directly concerning this matter. Moreover, I have enclosed my contact information and invited you to initiate a telephone call, yet you decline because you are not in "town." I am somewhat confused as to why your current location prevents you from accessing a telephone to contact me.

...if you continue to avoid discussing this matter, CompTIA will have no alternative but to exercise all of its available options...

CertCities.com attempted to reach Premaney and Bhagat to confirm their ownership of the site, whether one of them was on the other side of this e-mail exchange, as well as other facts in case and to get their perspective on the suit. To contact them, we used e-mail address available on the Troytec.com site. An unnamed person responded to our e-mail declining the request for comment/verification due to the pending litigation, but did say, "We are going to settle the issue out of court."

CertCities.com contacted CompTIA for comment on this case and to verify several aspects, but did not receive a response by press time.

If the case settles, one aspect of the settlement may be for the site to turn over its list of customers to CompTIA. This was a condition of the settlement of a 2001 civil suit CompTIA filed against CheetSheets.com. (The site was later shut down due to a criminal prosecution of the site's owner, Robert Keppel, initiated by Microsoft.)

In that case, CompTIA sent a mass e-mail to Keppel's customers asking them to either destroy the Cheet-Sheets in their possession or send them to CompTIA (reports vary as to the e-mail's content). No disciplinary action was taken against any of the purchasers, CompTIA said at the time.

Later that year, CompTIA settled another civil suit with former U.S.-based owner of TroyTec.com/TestKiller.com, Garry Neale. CertCities.com was unable to verify if customer names were part of this settlement. Neale is still under criminal investigation by the Bexar Country District Attorney's office in Texas (see links above for more information on this).

Although the name Jennings has officially been dropped from the complaint, this case is still listed on the court docket as Computing Tech. v. Jennings, 3:03cv323.

CertCities.com will bring you more on this story as it develops. -Becky Nagel