Alex Constantine - October 5, 2012
Crispbread heir, freetard icon doesn't fancy paying fines
By Andrew Orlowski
The Register, September 21, 2012
The millionaire financier of scofflaw torrent site The Pirate Bay has filed for personal bankruptcy. Carl Lundström, an heir to the Wasabröd crispbread fortune, was the most visible of the Pirate Bay four, and oversaw the internet sites' business operations, helping to funnel revenue overseas to avoid paying corporation tax, as well as providing hosting.
Lundström has served prison time for copyright infringement, unlike co-defendents Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, who did a Julian and became fugitives; Warg has since returned to Sweden after being arrested in Cambodia. However, Lundström still faces a SK32m fine.
The bankruptcy filing, which he confirmed to Ny Teknik, may merely be a precautionary: Lundström had already transferred property to his wife, and he now lives in Switzerland, which means Swedish authorities cannot pursue him for financial penalties arising from civil cases.
The Pirate Bay made considerable profits from directing users to artistic material - but failed to pay the artists.
The 47-year old far-right sympathizer has funded racist and extremist groups in Sweden – a fact coyly ignored by copyright activists and Pirate Bay supporters to whom the Pirate Bay four are heroes - as we noted here.
Even the Guardian newspaper appeared to forget its anti-fascist heritage when commenting upon The Pirate Bay case, and went so far as to knock a few years off Lundström’s age for good measure, describing him as “young and attractive.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/21/pirate_bay_fascist_bankrupt/