Dot1web settles 2-year-old suit

Incline Village-based Dot1web announced this week it had settled a 2-year-old lawsuit that alleged a conspiracy to destroy or control its subsidiary, Lowestbids.com.

Dot1web officials also said they have secured funding to pay outstanding claims against the company.

The settlement, signed Friday, came a week after a jury trial was scheduled for October -- just before an extensive round of depositions were to have been taken. Terms of the settlement are confidential, company officials said.

The complicated case consolidated three others. Lowestbids.com/Dot1web president and CEO Bob DeMaio were named as plaintiffs after filing a countersuit. The defendants were nine former Lowestbids.com employees and the law firm Skinner, Watson and Rounds, which, with Garrett Sutton, is the company's former legal counsel.

The suit listed 12 counts, including one alleging most of the former employees and the law firm had conspired to destroy Lowestbids.com or take over its business, and another one alleging racketeering. The defendants alleged DeMaio appropriated intellectual property, knowingly issued bad checks, and failed to pay for professional services.

In comments Tuesday, DeMaio said the new funding would pay back wages for more than 60 employees laid off last month and settle a lawsuit brought by Florida-based Green Solutions, which alleges Dot1web owes it more than $280,000 for compact discs it created. Other vendors allege they are owed money for labels and counter displays used with the CDs.

"I should have the funding in a day, day and a half," DeMaio said.

Labor Commission spokeswoman Amanda Getzoff said 57 claims for wages unpaid by Dot1web were currently open, and several others were being processed.

Getzoff said that, at the request of Deputy Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek, no further claim counts would be provided because he didn't want to try the employer in press.