In a twist worthy of a James Ellroy novel, con man Stephen Cohen — who forged a letter convincing Network Solutions to give him possession of the URL sex.com (via VeriSign) and whose whereabouts are still unknown — can now add “gangland murder attempt” to the new chapter in his real-life, sex.com neo-noir crime drama. When the URL’s owner, Gary Kremen, had the courts order Cohen to return Sex.com and pay him $65 million in damages, Cohen fled to Mexico — after he’d had the URL for three years, allegedly making $500,000 a month selling banner ads to other online porn sites. Come to think of it, the whole story (now 11 years in the making) could only be written by Carl Hiassen to have a fitting and sensible end — especially when you throw in a history that includes a convicted felon, a private investigator with a Stanford MBA, a Match.com startup dot-commer (now former) tweaker, a daughter caught smuggling 202 pounds of marijuana, a bizarre bid to buy Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and the operator of a Mexican shrimp farm. Don’t forget the Tijuana assassination attempt.

Now, Cohen is on the lam again and his lawyer in Mexico was attacked in a old-school Mafia-style whack attempt last week, injuring the lawyer’s cab driver and a young boy. Think Cohen will show up for his San Jose court date next February? Yeah, sure. Snip from Red Herring:

“The shooting came one day after Stephen Cohen, the man who fast-talked his way into control of sex.com in 1995, was ordered released from jail so he could round up $65 million he owes Gary Kremen, the programmer turned Internet entrepreneur who sued to recover control of the domain name he registered in 1994.

The lawyer who was attacked, Gustavo Cortés Carvajal, is believed to be the only person with access to some of Mr. Cohen’s assets in Mexico, including a Tijuana property the two men jointly own.

He was unhurt after gunmen in Tijuana fired numerous rounds at the vehicle in which he was traveling, but the driver and a four-year-old boy were injured in the attack.

Mr. Cohen’s whereabouts remain unknown and he has not been tied to the shooting, but Mr. Kremen on Monday would not rule out that possibility.” Link. (via Valleywag; also, more background here)