Colleyville politician tied to purchase of website domains featuring opponents’ names

Amyn Gilani needed a website. In February, he declared his candidacy for city council in Colleyville. He preferred GilaniForColleyville.com — he had secured GilaniForColleyville for an Instagram handle and a Gmail address. But obtaining a web domain with the same phrase proved challenging: Somebody had already registered it. Same with AmynForCollyeville.com.

As far as Gilani knew, he was the only Amyn in town. Besides family members, he believed he was the only Gilani. What was going on?

As Gilani discovered — and as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram confirmed via online records — a company with ties to Colleyville City Council member Callie Rigney was listed as the registrant of the domains he wanted to buy. The principal of that company, Rigney Financial Services, is Wayne Rigney, Callie Rigney’s husband. An attorney for Gilani sent a cease-and-desist order to Wayne Rigney and the company, ordering them to hand over control of the domains.

The alleged domain squatting, potentially a violation of federal law, marks yet another political spat for Colleyville, where discord has simmered for years between tea party-affiliated Republicans, mainstream Republicans and Democrats.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re seeing this level of disinformation in local politics,” Gilani said.

Wayne Rigney and Callie Rigney did not respond to interview requests from the Star-Telegram. A representative from Rigney Financial Services said the company could not comment on pending litigation.

Gilani filed to run on Feb. 4. (He originally declared for Callie Rigney’s Place 6 council seat but has since changed to run for Place 5 against incumbent Chuck Kelley.) The public application featured his email address as GilaniForColleyville@gmail.com.

On Feb. 5, according to public records from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the WHOIS database managed by domain registrar company GoDaddy, Rigney Financial Services registered the domains sought by Gilani. Rigney Financial Services is also listed as registering domains on Feb. 5 containing the name of another opponent, Kurt Meyer (KurtForColleyville.com and MeyerForColleyville.com), according to WHOIS and ICANN data.

The domains for Meyer and Gilani have not been turned into active websites. CallieForColleyville.com, registered by Rigney Financial Services the same day as the Gilani and Meyer websites according to ICANN screenshots provided to the Star-Telegram, is active and being used as Callie Rigney’s campaign website.

On March 16, Gilani’s attorney said in its cease-and-desist letter that Rigney Financial Services needed to transfer ownership of the Gilani-related domains to Gilani. Rigney Financial Services and Gilani were in negotiations as of Monday, according to Gilani.

After the letter was sent, the publicly visible ownership details for the Gilani websites and the Meyer websites changed from Rigney Financial Services to Domains By Proxy. Domains By Proxy is a paid service that hides clients’ identities from public listings. The clients of Domains By Proxy, according to the company’s website, retain full control over their domains. The switch was made after the Star-Telegram — as well as Gilani and his legal team — captured screenshots of records indicating domain registration by Rigney Financial Services.

Oren Bracha, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and an expert in IP law, said people can potentially violate the federal Anti Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act by registering a domain with bad intent and with intent to profit. Bracha said the act of blocking a domain from someone else can be enough to establish bad intent. The part about profiting, particularly pertaining to a case involving politics, is hazier. “The case law is spotty and open for maneuver on the issue of profiting commercially,” he said. Parties involved in cybersquatting disputes can also file complaints with ICANN under its dispute resolution policy.

As for transferring public ownership details to Domains By Proxy? “It’s not a good thing for the judge or arbitrator to be aware of,” Bracha said.

For Colleyville, online political conflicts are nothing new. On Facebook groups with thousands of members, discussions often devolve into heated attacks. Last September, the Star-Telegram broke the story of a fake account trolling a Facebook group dedicated to Colleyville schools. The account was registered under a phone number belonging to school board candidate Tommy Snyder, who lost his election.

Callie Rigney has served on Colleyville City Council since 2018. She and her husband have been involved with the True Texas Project, the rebranded Northeast Tarrant Tea Party.

Gilani moved to Colleyville nearly five years ago from the Washington, D.C., area. He decided to run for office after seeing Colleyville politicians’ response to the coronavirus, which included resistance to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s stay-at-home and mask orders.

Gilani, who has not aligned with Republicans or Democrats for his campaign, ended up buying the domain VoteGilani.com. He’s tired of Colleyville experiencing political drama over and over.

“It’s important to make a stand that this can no longer happen,” Gilani said. “We need to pave the way for honest and legitimate elections.”