In 1994 Gary Kremen (who would later found Match.com) registered a bunch of domain names: jobs.com, housing.com, and, most famously, sex.com. Soon after, a "brilliant con man" named Stephen Cohen gained control of sex.com and sold ads that brought in about a half million dollars a day.
Lawsuits, unpaid judgments, manhunts, and gun fights ensued. And the feud between Kremen and Cohen continues to this day. More than one book has covered the battle over the website (including Kieren McCarthy's book, Sex.com, but Kari Paul has an excellent short history at Motherboard.
After losing the case, Cohen fled across the border to Tijuana to avoid paying the settlement. Kremen responded by posting "wanted" signs all over the Mexican town with Cohen's photo and information. McCarthy said Cohen claimed this resulted in bounty hunters showing up at his door and instigating a firefight with the Mexican police.
Eventually Cohen was extradited from Mexico and sent back to the US, where he sat in jail for six months until a judge gave up on trying to make him pay up. To this day, Cohen has refused to pay a penny of the $(removed) million he owes Kremen, according to McCarthy. The only thing Kremen was able to wrest from Cohen in the end was one of his properties, which he paid people to destroy before Kremen took ownership of it. And the petty fight continues.
