Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of Kickass Torrents, was arrested in Poland this week. Though American authorities are seeking Vaulin’s extradition to the United States for trial, the main Kickass Torrents site hosted in Poland remains online.
According to the criminal complaint filed against Vaulin with the Chicago court system, Kickass Torrents is estimated to be the 69th most commonly visited website on the internet, with an estimated net worth of well over $50 million. According to a statement posted on the U.S. Department of Justice website by Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell, Kickass Torrents is responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials.
“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,” Caldwell said. “His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice.”
During the investigation, TorrentFreak notes U.S. authorities posed as advertisers, which allowed them to gain information about a bank account associated with the site. The official complaint also revealed that Apple had a hand in Vaulin’s arrest, as the company handed over certain personal details of Vaulin’s after investigators cross-referenced an IP address used for both an iTunes transaction and to log in to Kickass Torrent’s official Facebook account.
“Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook,” the complaint reads.
With the information gained, courts were granted the seizure of a bank account associated with KickassTorrents, as well as several of the site’s domain names.
While at the time of this writing, Vaulin is still in Poland, if the country chooses to cooperate with U.S. authorities and allow Vaulin’s extradition, he will be tried in American courts on four charges: two counts of criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.
The copyright charge alone can bring a five-year sentence, but the money laundering charge could add up to 20 additional years to Vaulin’s sentence .
It is believed that Vaulin operates a software development company known as Cryptoneat that was likely used to conceal Kickass Torrents’ operations. According to Heavy.com , Cryptoneat has a LinkedIn page that describes the company as follows:
“We are a software development company crafting our own products since 2008. Our latest project is wine scanner iOS application Wineeapp.com. We support personal responsibility and involvement with no over-management standing in the way of imagination and creative thinking.
Flexible schedules and smart workspace — we hold to the ergonomics cult: Herman Miller chairs, standing desks, Apple hardware and multi-monitor configurations.”
While it is unknown how Vaulin’s sentencing will play out, U.S. authorities are adamant they will continue pursuing any cases where mass copyright infringement is taking place.
“Copyright infringement exacts a large toll, a very human one, on the artists and businesses whose livelihood hinges on their creative inventions,” said U.S. Attorney Fardon in a statement . “Vaulin allegedly used the Internet to cause enormous harm to those artists. Our Cybercrimes Unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago will continue to work with our law enforcement partners around the globe to identify, investigate and prosecute those who attempt to illegally profit from the innovation of others.”
As more is learned about Vaulin’s arrest and sentencing and the fate of Kickass Torrents, we’ll be sure to update this post. A complete copy of the complain filed against Vaulin can be seen below.
https://www.scribd.com/document/318868843/Artem-Vaulin-KickassTorrents-Lawsuit
