Disgruntled ex-CEO allegedly hijacked domain title, caused $1M in

Disgruntled ex-CEO allegedly hijacked domain title, caused $1M in

A disgruntled ex-CEO locked his former video game studio out of its personal web site, knocked workers offline and triggered more than $1 million in alleged losses — then put the domain up on the market for $6,666,666, a new lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal courtroom in Los Angeles, accuses former That’s No Moon Entertainment CEO Michael Mumbauer of seizing management of company-owned domains years after he was fired for trigger and utilizing them to sabotage the studio’s operations.

After his 2022 firing, Mumbauer grew “resentful about his termination” and launched a harassment campaign that included threatening a senior govt and their household, the criticism alleges. News of the lawsuit was reported by the gamer news web site Aftermath.

Michael Mumbauer, the former CEO of That’s No Moon Entertainment, is accused in a new lawsuit of hijacking the studio’s domain title and making an attempt to promote it for $6,666,666. X/MichaelMumbauer

“At 6 a.m. on January 6, 2026, Defendant hijacked ThatsNoMoon.com, disabling TNM’s own access to that domain and TNM employees’ ability to e-mail with any external sender or recipient,” the criticism states.

The sudden shutdown left the studio successfully paralyzed, reducing off communications with traders, enterprise companions and job candidates and forcing workers to desert their regular work to triage the outage, according to the lawsuit.

Visitors who tried to go online to ThatsNoMoon.com had been instead redirected to a Swiss journey web site, the swimsuit said.

The weird redirect sparked confusion among outsiders, with enterprise companions, avid gamers and potential hires left questioning whether or not the company had abruptly shut down or quietly fired key executives who had been instantly unreachable by e mail, the criticism says.

Mumbauer was terminated “for cause” on Feb. 17, 2022, after the company’s founders and board concluded that his “vision for the company did not align with theirs,” according to the criticism.

Former That’s No Moon Entertainment CEO Michael Mumbauer was fired for trigger in 2022, according to a federal lawsuit. X/MichaelMumbauer

The lawsuit alleges that while serving as CEO, Mumbauer “breached his duty to act in TNM’s best interests,” including by leaking “confidential and sensitive information to the media and to competitors.”

In September 2020, Mumbauer co-founded That’s No Moon alongside three other video game builders: Tina Kowalewski, Taylor Kurosaki and Nick Kononelos.

The lawsuit claims the hijacked domain was later listed on the market on GoDaddy for $6,666,666. US District Court

The 4 executives sought to make “narrative-driven video games” by drawing on their experience from other studios such as Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Infinity Ward and PlayStation’s Visual Arts Group.

Shortly after the studio’s founding, the company’s founders agreed to buy 13 web domains containing variations of the “That’s No Moon” title, including ThatsNoMoon.com, which turned the studio’s main web site, according to the criticism.

The lawsuit says Mumbauer purchased the domains on the company’s behalf and was later absolutely reimbursed, however registered them in his personal title and never transferred management to the company.

The company says it filed swimsuit after securing federal trademark registrations for “That’s No Moon” and associated marks. US District Court

The lawsuit claims the fallout from the domain seizure value the studio more than $1 million in January alone, as its four-person IT team scrambled for days emigrate providers to a new internet tackle and restore cascading technical failures.

After the preliminary outage, the criticism says the hijacked domain was redirected to a GoDaddy public sale web page itemizing it on the market at $6,666,666, while other company domains had been equally pointed to “for sale” pages that risked additional confusion and reputational hurt.

That’s No Moon was based in 2020. That’s No Moon

The criticism filed by That’s No Moon speculated that the $6,666,666 sum is “[a] number that [Mumbauer] may well have selected for its Satanic connotation.”

The company says it filed swimsuit after securing federal trademark registrations for “That’s No Moon” and associated marks, arguing that Mumbauer’s continued management of the domains now constitutes trademark infringement, cybersquatting and laptop fraud.

The Post has sought remark from Mumbauer and TNM.

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