New Jersey Judge Strips Radaris of Its Domains in Landmark Data Broker Case
After years of shell-company games, the people-search giant lost radaris.com to the plaintiffs suing it under Daniel's Law.
Key points
- A New Jersey judge on 26 August ordered radaris.com and more than a dozen sister domains transferred to Atlas Data Privacy Corp after Radaris repeatedly failed to appear and defend itself.
- Atlas sued under Daniel's Law, a New Jersey statute that lets police, judges and other covered officials demand removal from data brokers, with fines of $1,000 per violation.
- Atlas says it gathered over 10,000 emails and documents showing radaris.com and at least 25 other people-search sites are run by a small Boston-area group using shell entities in the Marshall Islands, British Virgin Islands, Seychelles and Cyprus.
- Radaris co-founders Igor and Dmitry Lubarsky, Russian-born brothers living in Massachusetts, previously ran the company behind a fictitious CEO named "Gary Norden".
- Radaris's new attorney says he'll move to vacate the judgment and appeal, arguing radaris.com is a domain name, not a legal entity that can be sued.
A data broker that spent a decade brushing off privacy complaints has just lost its front door.
On 26 August, a New Jersey judge ordered radaris.com and more than a dozen related domains handed over to Atlas Data Privacy Corp, the company suing Radaris under a state law designed to shield police officers and judges from being doxxed online. Visit radaris.com now and you no longer get a searchable file on tens of millions of Americans. You get a notice from Atlas.
What is Daniel's Law and why did it matter here?
Daniel's Law is a New Jersey statute that lets law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors and government personnel demand that data brokers remove their personal information. Ignore the request and a company faces $1,000 per violation. The law is named for Daniel Anderl, son of a federal judge, who was murdered at the family's home in 2020 by a man who found their address online.
Atlas Data Privacy Corp acts on behalf of covered officials and has been suing brokers that fail to honour takedown requests. Radaris was one of its biggest targets. Our 14 August story on a tool that reveals who's tracking you online found Russian-linked data brokers operating inside mainstream apps, which makes this judgment land with extra weight.
How did Radaris keep dodging lawsuits?
By running a shell game across offshore jurisdictions, according to Atlas.
Matt Adkisson, Atlas's president and CEO, called it Radaris's "island-hopping phase," telling KrebsOnSecurity that privacy policies changed constantly and new corporate entities kept appearing from the Marshall Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles. Whenever a judgment loomed, the named operator would be swapped for a fresh one.
At one point Radaris told the court a Marshall Islands company was now running the site. Atlas hired an investigator on the ground and found the entity hadn't actually been formed yet.
The same pattern beat a 2017 class action. That court initially ordered Verisign to transfer radaris.com to the plaintiffs after a $7.5 million default judgment. Radaris's longtime attorney Val Gurvits appealed, arguing the true owner was a Cyprus firm called Bitseller Expert Limited that had never been served. The judge halted the transfer and told the plaintiffs they could refile. They never did. Ownership then quietly moved to Andtop Company, formed in the Marshall Islands in October 2020.
Who actually runs Radaris?
KrebsOnSecurity reported in 2024 that Radaris was built and operated by Igor and Dmitry Lubarsky, Russian-born brothers based in Massachusetts, behind a made-up CEO named "Gary Norden" who appeared in press releases and investor pitches. Gurvits later admitted to the court that Norden was a pseudonym his clients had invented.
Atlas says the 10,000-plus emails and documents produced in discovery back that up. The filings, it argues, show radaris.com and at least 25 other people-search sites are administered by three or four people, from the same mailboxes, sharing a single bank and payment arrangement out of one virtual office. Named entities include Radaris America, Bitseller Expert Limited, Digital Orbit Corp, Core Solutions Group, Lucky Solutions, Virtura Corp, Veripages and Nuform Solutions, among others.
What happens next?
Radaris isn't conceding. Victor Worms, who has taken over from Gurvits, told KrebsOnSecurity he's filed a motion to vacate the default judgment on the grounds that radaris.com is a domain name, not a legal person capable of being sued. He also plans to appeal, arguing the transfer amounts to a forfeiture that violates constitutional principles.
My read: the offshore-shuffle defence finally met a plaintiff willing to outspend the delay. Raj Parikh, a partner at PEM Law handling Atlas's Daniel's Law litigation, told KrebsOnSecurity the strategy "worked for a decade" precisely because previous plaintiffs tired of procedural games. Atlas didn't. Other brokers running the same playbook should assume that tactic no longer works in New Jersey. For ordinary readers the practical effect is narrow: if your name used to sit in a Radaris dossier, that specific dossier is off the open web for now. The wider people-search industry is not.
