Stephen Cohen Apprehended by Mexican Federal Police

TIJUANA — Stephen Cohen, who dodged a $65 million court judgment by fleeing the U.S., has been arrested by Mexican federal police in Tijuana on an immigration violation and was handed over Thursday to U.S. agents.

Cohen had been on the run since before 2001, when a judge ordered him to pay Gary Kremen for usurping the URL Sex.com. Cohen in 1995 forged a letter to gain control of the Internet address.

The Los Angeles Times in Friday's editions said Cohen was living in a Tijuana mansion for years.

Cohen presented a forged letter to Network Solutions from Kremen's company that said Kremen had been fired and that Cohen should get control of Sex.com. Network Solutions handed over the site.

Cohen, in the meantime, made tens of millions of dollars by selling ads on Sex.com. But later, after his attorneys contended the site was his, a federal judge on the case ordered Cohen arrested for contempt of court but he never resurfaced.

During the years of litigation, he moved his millions overseas and left the country, occasionally calling Kremen to taunt him. Kremen got Sex.com back in late 2000 and the next year was awarded $65 million.

Despite a dismissal of an appeal he filed to a $65 million ruling against him this year, Cohen said in May that he felt he would ultimately clear his name in the long-running Sex.com case.

“I believe this is all going to go back to square one,” Cohen told XBiz, “and if it does, I will prevail.”

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal.

Cohen on Thursday was turned over to agents of the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshals Service.

He is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego.

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