The FTC has accused Pricewert of shielding clientele said to be engaged in criminal activities that include child pornography. The FTC has also accused Pricewert of operating a with command-and-control servers aimed at disseminating malware and conducting phishing attacks.

Max Christopher, a Pricewert spokesman, complained that the company didn't receive communications from the FTC until after the shutdown occurred.

"At first, our technicians thought something was going wrong," said Christopher, about the sudden shutdown. He said the FTC "has ruined our reputation" and has caused loss of customers. Christopher, who says he is from Ukraine, added that he hopes the firm isn't being targeted because it has associations with Ukraine, which has gotten a bad reputation in some circles for malware distribution and online crime.

Christopher said Pricewert objects to "blaming providers for bad customer actions." The investigation into the Web hosting provider, according to the FTC, involved NASA's Office of the Inspector General and other organizations, including Symantec, for analysis of logs and traffic activity. Christopher called it a flawed investigative process, at least in part due to poor translations of Russian. He said Pricewert has in the past tried to work with law enforcement, including the FBI, about problems that were brought to their attention.

Symantec's Vincent Weafer, vice president of security response, said security company, at the FTC's request, did assist in proving threat intelligence regarding Pricewert's operations online based on what was detected through network sensors coming from specific domains. Weafer said the threat intelligence gathering from Symantec did back up the FTC's case about botnets and phishing.