MADISON — The city of La Crosse wants to recover nine website domain names wrongfully registered to former Information Systems Director David Montealegre, according to lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.

Montealegre’s last day at city hall ended with his arrest earlier this year on bankruptcy fraud charges filed in federal court in Texas.

He had been the city’s IT director since 2005, and part of his responsibilities were registering and renewing registration of the city’s several websites, including lacrossecenter.com and foresthillsgolf.org. 

Instead of renewing the domain names as city owned, Montealegre registered them in his own name and then billed the city for the associated costs, according to the suit. A check for $1,827 written in December from the city to Montealegre was filed with the suit.

Each of the La Crosse domain names relates to a program or service provided by the city or to the city itself and is used to disseminate information about the city and its services. Montealegre had no other personal interest in the sites that belong to the city, the suit alleged.

The practice of registering a domain name associated with another entity with the intent to profit from the entity’s goodwill is referred to as cybersquatting and is prohibited by the Anticyber-squatting Consumer Protection Act.

Montealegre’s actions violated the anticybersquatting act and he was unjustly enriched by gaining, at the city’s expense, any benefits from ownership of the domain names, the suit alleged. 

Because the domain names are registered in Montealegre’s name, the city is unable to own or control those domain names or the websites at those domains.

The city learned the nine domain names were registered in Montealegre’s name in mid-June. The city contacted  Enom, Inc., the registrar of La Crosse’s domain names, but it has refused to transfer them to the city without a court order.

The city’s suit seeks an injunction ordering the names be transferred to the city, that Montealegre identify any other domain names he purchased while working for the city and costs associated with the suit.

A summons has been issued to Montealegre addressed to the Ector County Correctional Center in Odessa, Texas, where he is awaiting sentencing on the bankruptcy fraud charge.