Last week, Gottfrid Svartholm was arrested. Again. If that name rings a vaguely Scandinavian bell, it’s because he’s the co-founder of Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay, founded less than 10 years again in Sweden, made news over the past ten years for its controversial – and generally illegal – file-sharing practices. Specifically, Svartholm and his co-founder Fredrik Neij became the whipping boys for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) – among other media companies – for copyright violations. Those copyright violation allegations eventually ended in a prison sentence and fees for Svartholm. Svartholm never showed up to serve his sentence and a warrant for his arrest has remained outstanding ever since.
The most recent arrest happened in Cambodia at the request of Swedish authorities. This time, however, the arrest isn’t tied to Pirate Bay but to something more serious: Svartholm is alleged to have hacked a Swedish IT company and leaked thousands of tax ID numbers. That company, Logica, provides services to the major tax offices in Sweden.
Two Swedes have already been identified as suspects and it would appear that Svartholm is the third.
Svartholm currently sits in Cambodia awaiting the next steps. It was initially unclear as to what might happen since Cambodia does not have an extradition treaty with Sweden; extradition is the legal transfer of an accused person from one jurisdiction to another. Sources have indicated, however, that Cambodia appears to be cooperating with Swedish authorities.
