Pirate Bay founder accused of running Reservella

The Pirate Bay founders: Peter Sunde Kolmissoppi, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm.

(Credit: The Pirate Bay)

Update: 4:30 p.m. PT To include statement from BREIN

Dutch antipiracy group BREIN says it has found documents tying one of The Pirate Bay founders to the company listed as the owner of the Thepiratebay.org, Reservella.

According to a blog post by Peter Sunde Kolmissoppi, one of the founders of the BitTorrent search engine, BREIN has filed a complaint against The Pirate Bay founders, who include Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm. The Pirate Bay has been outlawed in the Netherlands.

During that hearing, BREIN produced documents, including a credit report, showing that Neij is listed as CEO of Reservella. Kolmissoppi denied that Neij is connected to Reservella, and he said the documents are phony.

"We were quite sure (Neij) did not have an offshore company set up," Kolmissoppi said. "And if he did, at least he would be smart enough to not be a director in it."

Tim Kuik, BREIN's director did not address Kolmissoppi's allegations that his group forged documents in a statement issued by the group.

"Denying their responsibility and playing hide and seek is what the gentlemen of The Pirate Bay have been doing since they began their illegal business", saids Tim Kuik, BREIN's director. "We have sufficient reason to assume that they still are responsible. The company on the Seychelles looks like a thin veil to cover up what is really going on."

The Pirate Bay founders maintain that the site is owned by Reservella, a company based in the Republic of Seychelles, off the coast of Africa. This spring the entertainment industry alleged that Reservella is controlled by the founders of The Pirate Bay.

This has been an eventful few weeks for The Pirate Bay. It has been hounded across Europe, as copyright owners have chased it from one Internet service provider to the next. The site has gone down for extended periods several times, with the most recent outage occurring on Monday.

Even after some fans have given the site up for dead, it comes right back. But there's no denying that film studios, TV networks, book publishers, music labels, and anyone else that objects to the file swapping that The Pirate Bay helps facilitate is ratcheting up the pressure on the three founders.

A year-long jail sentence and a $3.6 million judgment is already hanging over their heads. Any ISP that provides bandwidth to The Pirate Bay faces legal challenges. And now the Dutch courts have The Pirate Bay in their crosshairs.

Kolmissoppi said he intends to file criminal charges against BREIN and some of its leaders for fraud.

[Sausagebiscuit]

Let me be the first to say "so?". /yawn

[Gregslover]

Would make sense

Domain ID:D104576138-LROR
Domain Name:THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
Created On:28-Jun-2004 16:08:27 UTC
Last Updated On:18-Jun-2009 07:12:07 UTC
Expiration Date:28-Jun-2015 16:08:27 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Key-Systems GmbH (R51-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:P-7524559
Registrant Name:Fredrik Neij
Registrant Organization:Reservella

[Sausagebiscuit]

Nope. Read the entire blog post. For some reason, this got left out of the story by CNET. They proved the report to be fake. The whois information above is what was used to create the fake credit report.

From the blog post:
"And as you all can clearly see from the overwhelming evidence, the credit report is fake. Backed up by evidence from the lawyers of Mossack Fonseca & Co. Backed up by the government of Seychelles, times two ? First by their company registry. And I actually called and asked if Fredrik was a citizen of their country. The answer was, as expected, Neij. He?s not.

It?s also clear that the government does not keep the data of the CEO nor the directors of companies.
It is clear that the previous inquiry is ********, at least on that date.
It is clear that the date of registration is taken from the whois of thepiratebay.org
It is clear that Fredriks name is taken from the same whois;
? and it?s clear that Reservellas name is taken from there (or from the air, it doesn?t really matter)."

[bschmock]

@ Sausage
Thats what I was thinking, who really gives a damn. If ya wanna use torrents there are other sites. I say shut the thing down, and stop making it news.

[Sausagebiscuit]

Please update article to say that the document is a "supposed" (more like real, but no official statement has been made yet) forgery. Please read his entire blog post. Thanks!

[wmterhaar]

BREIN has reacted to the accusations. They know the report is incorrect and that is why they do not use the credit report to build their case anymore. They don't believe Kolmisoppi will file charges; he has treatened to do so in the past, but actually never done it. Article (in Dutch): http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/63922/pirate-bay-doet-aangifte-tegen-brein-en-kuik---update-2.html

[eriksson_j]

This article seems to miss the entire point of the post by Sunde. BREIN falsified third party documents: fraud.

[mbenedict]

It's highly unlikely BREIN would falsify a third-party document which would surely be under court scrutiny. If the document is a forgery, it's more likely that someone gave BREIN that document, and BREIN went to court with it without doing the proper due-diligence. They should fess up and state where they got the document from.

[mellonbeef]

i find it very likely brein could and would be capable, if not put in a position to lucratively falsify documents. you don't think global entertainment companies are whispering large donation numbers in the ears of what probably amounts to a small out fit? really? you don't think there's chump change lying around and that entertainment companies have no invested interest in destroying sites like pirate bay, etc. true they may not have had anything to do with the creation but you don't think they tried at least a little to find if the document was false and though, "eh f** it, lets just try it n see what happens." and now regardless of wether they constructed it or not, they're no longer a reliable entity as now they look incapable, not researching a lead? thats just inept.

[punlman]

Peter Sunde Kolmissoppi, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm are Heroes of our time.