Florida real estate brokerage Travers Miran Realty has fired real estate agent Joshua Alayon after he was swept up in a hack that revealed alleged attempts to register domain names such as theholocaustisfake.com and whitesencyclopedia.com.
Last week, Epik, a domain registrar known for hosting far-right groups, was hit by “hacktivist collective” Anonymous, who proceeded to leak 180 gigabytes of previously private data — including user names, passwords, 15 million email addresses, and other identifying information of Epik’s customers as well as others, according to several news outlets.
One such user appears to have been Alayon, a Pompano Beach, Florida, agent who allegedly tried to register a slew of domains appearing to express far-right views, such as holocaust-truth.com, theholocaustisfake.com, whitechristianrepublican.com and whitesencyclopedia.com.
Alayon is also CEO of a nonprofit called Lefnei Iver Synagogue, whose website is currently offline but previously described itself as an “Orthodox Jewish Messianic Christian Community.” Alayon incorporated Lefnei Iver Synagogue as a non-profit on January 6. Its principal place of business appears to be Alayon’s home and its stated purpose is “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: That ye might fear the Lord your God for ever. Joshua 4:24.”
Alayon’s website RentingSouthFlorida.com is also offline. Alayon holds an amateur radio vanity call sign, KM4YRT. It was previously W1TES, according to the FCC website.
The online sleuth that tweeted out this list of domains also alleged that Alayon owns a “racist grifter site” called racisminc.com, which posts racist memes and asks people for donations to end racism. One such meme includes a video clip of Black children visiting a zoo and calling a gorilla “daddy” over and over.
Reached by phone, Alayon denied owning theracisminc.com site. He did not respond when asked who owned it. Asked if he tried to register the domain theholocaustisfake.com, Alayon said, “I’m Jewish. We have a very strong culture of introspection.”
Asked whether he was proud of what he does, Alayon said, “Absolutely. I help people find homes.” Later, via text message, Alayon threatened legal action and added, “Oh and if you ever need help buying a home in Florida – I’d love to help!”
Rick Rapp, broker-owner of Parkland, Florida-based Travers Miran Realty, said he had not heard of Alayon’s online activities until Inman texted him the tweet with the posted domains.
“That’s disgusting,” Rapp said in a phone interview. “Those are horrible words, never mind domains. I don’t know anything about it. He’s no longer employed with us. I certainly don’t want anything like that associated with myself or my company.”
He said he had officially removed Alayon from his roster after receiving the text and had officially removed him from his license with the state. Inman confirmed this. Rapp said he had not spoken to Alayon and didn’t plan to.
“To be honest with you I would really rather not speak with someone who thinks like that or wants to make a domain like that,” he said. “Agents are all independent contractors so they can be released at any time.”
Rapp, who has about 25 agents under his license, said Alayon had been affiliated with his firm for seven or eight months and he’d only met him twice due to the pandemic. He said he had no inkling Alayon held such views.
“I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with someone like that let alone work with me or under me or for me,” Rapp said.
After Inman informed Alayon he’d been fired, Alayon texted, “I’ll do alright. You’ll still be a fake news shill, though.”