http://business.avn.com/articles/Dot...ry-396316.html
by Tom Hymes

The dot-XXX saga has been a part of the story of the adult online industry for so long that it has taken on a mythology all its own, especially regarding the unrelenting stories of backroom promises in exchange for support. The fact that dot-XXX has been rejected by ICANN time and again—only to be resurrected from the dead wholly due to ICM Registry’s utter determination to get what it believes it is owed—has done little to squash the many rumors and accounts that have swirled around the domain from the very beginning.

......

My own first-hand experiences—along with the many conversations, including recent ones that I have had with informed or involved people who were around back then—have only confirmed for me that deals did take place during Hendeles’ early crusade to extract support from companies and people in the industry by any means possible. Like many, I too was relentlessly targeted by Hendeles for support he knew full well I was not willing to give. By early 2004, his final gambit with me was to purposefully lie to me in order to gain a concession that I regretfully gave: I would consider sitting on the IFFOR board if the scheme passed, but only if ICM promised not to use the concession to assist in the application or even to show it to ICANN, which in the end is precisely what ICM did. In light of that deceit, I believe they pulled similar stunts with others.

.......

Back then, Hendeles’ campaign was notoriously ruthless in achieving its ends through furtive and fluid tactics. Today, when current ICM chairman Stuart Lawley swears with every fiber of his being that no promises were made, the declaration carries little legitimacy, since he was not around when the lion’s share of the deals took place. It is no accident, of course, that Jason Hendeles himself is no longer allowed on the dot-XXX scene, so to speak, despite the fact that he remains vice president of ICM Registry. His very presence would remind everyone of what really took place in the dark early days of dot-XXX.