Sex.com hijacker arrested

Stephen Cohen was picked up in Mexico over an immigration violation

Mexican police have arrested Stephen Cohen, a convicted conman who defrauded the authorities in 1995 to take over ownership of the sex.com internet domain.

Cohen had been living in Tijuana after a US judge ordered him in 2001 to pay $65m over the domain name hijacking. With interest the fine has grown to $82m.

Cohen was arrested over an immigration violation and Mexican police have handed him over to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The sex.com domain was originally registered by Gary Kremen, founder of Match.com, in 1994. He did not develop the website at the time.

Cohen saw the enormous potential of the internet site and forged a document instructing domain name registrar Network Solutions to transfer the domain. The firm complied.

While Kremen fought to regain control, Cohen built sex.com into a internet portal which has allegedly made tens of millions of dollars.

It took until 2000 for Kremen to get the domain back, by which time Cohen had moved most of the gains from the site offshore and had fled to Mexico.

Kremen is understood to have already obtained some of Cohen's US-based assets in part payment of the award, but is still believed to be owed around half of the damages.