ATLANTA — The former owner of Wines.com yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against an ecommerce entrepreneur and his company, after he allegedly transformed parts of the longtime site into a porn blog and swindled her after he sold the site.
In the case, plaintiff Jacklyn Wilferd said she purchased Wines.com in 1994 and developed the domain and a website for 24 years, before entering into profit-sharing agreements in 2018 with Khuram Dhanani and his company, Digital Equity LLC, to further develop and sell the website and domain as a commercial product, while generating revenue in the interim.
Wilferd, in the suit filed at Atlanta federal court, said that she spurned offers for Wines.com ranging from $700,000 to $2.5 million and chose Dhanani for a deal instead, “as she wished to maximize the value of her sale as a 68-years-old senior seeking to retire.”
“Dhanani, however, simply swindled Wilferd, paying her $50,000 for transfer of the website and domain to his company, Digital Equity, to facilitate a sale, but doing basically nothing to develop the website, except post pornographic content under Wilferd’s name — contrary to his promises),” the suit said.
The series of blog articles on porn topics started appearing on the site in April 2019, the suit said.
One example listed in the complaint was a review of adult star Sydney Cole, as well as her “top 10” wine choices. The review also adds a link to her scenes in BrattySisters.com.
Wilferd said that after learning that Dhanani sold the site last August, he claimed that he had no obligation to pay Wilferd “anything more under their profit-sharing agreements, because the sale was purportedly not a ‘product sale,’ but a ‘corporate-level asset sale,’ a distinction nowhere part of their agreements.”
The former Wines.com owners said that to date Dhanani has even refused to provide her any details regarding the sale or an accounting for the company in which she was a profit-sharing partner.
With the suit, Wilferd seeks to recover the value of the website and domain she developed for 24 years, worth between $1 million to $5 million, “which defendants disingenuously claim they purchased from her for only $50,000 (with no further obligation under their profit sharing agreements to account for the sale of the website and domain).”
Because of Dhanani’s alleged conduct constitutes “an egregious fraud and elder abuse,” Wilferd is seeking to further recover punitive and trebled damages, attorneys’ fees and costs in the action.
AVN attempted to reach Dhanani for comment but was unsuccessful at post time.
According to his personal website, Dhanani describes himself as an e-commerce entrepreneur and investor who founded web companies known as Clear Spark and ZQ Network.
Forbes in 2015 published an article on Dhanani called “Inside The Mind Of A Millionaire: E-Commerce Entrepreneur Khuram Dhanani On Success & His Next Move.”
