Owner of internet largest piracy website ‘Kickass Torrents’ (KAT), has been arrested from Poland on Wednesday, the piracy website is also down
Artem Vaulin, a Ukrainian who is said to have a net worth of at least $54 million, has been charged by US with two counts of criminal copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
As per Morning Ledger, Vaulin Kickass Torrents domains and assets have been seized and are now inactive. As well as bank accounts associated with the torrent site have also been claimed.
According to The Guardian, the copyright charges could lead to a five years sentence, whereas, the money laundering charge have a maximum sentence of up to 20 years.
“Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials,” said US, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell.
“In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits. His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice,” added Caldwell.
As per Voice of America, KAT has allowed users to illegally reproduce and distribute copies of movies, music, and video games since 2008. It operates in 28 languages and has made movies available that were still running in cinemas, it source of revenue is from advertising throughout its site.
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