US Feds nab suspected operator of Kickass Torrents

US authorities have arrested a Ukranian citizen in Poland for allegedly operating the world’s most visited digital piracy website, Kickass Torrent.

The United States Department of Justice announced the July 20 arrest of Artem Vaulin, 30, who was criminally charged for copyright infringement and money laundering in a US District Court in Chicago.

According to Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, they will seek to extradite Vaulin to the US, where he will face the charges lodged against him.

“Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over US$1 billion (AU$1.3 billion) of copyrighted materials,” Caldwell said.

“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,” he pointed out.

According to the complaint, Vaulin allegedly owns and runs Kickass Torrents or KAT, which is a commercial website that allows visitors to download and illegally reproduce countless copyrighted motion pictures, video games, television programs, musical recordings and other electronic media since 2008.

‘Illegal’ commerce

A native of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Vaulin faces criminal charges with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. Aside from his arrest, a federal court in Chicago ordered the seizure of a bank account and seven domain names associated with Kickass Torrents.

“Investigating cyber-enabled schemes is a top priority for CI,” said Chief Richard Weber of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Websites such as the one seized today brazenly facilitate all kinds of illegal commerce.”

For making copyrighted materials available for public download, KAT reportedly registers more than 50 million unique monthly visitors, making it one of the most frequently visited website. According to the complaint, KAT has operated under various domain names such as kickasstorrents.com, kat.ph, kickass.to, kickass.so and kat.cr. So far, the websites were ordered blocked by courts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Belgium and Malaysia.

Advertising magnet

KAT, which operates in 28 languages, allegedly generates hefty profit from web advertising. According to the complaint lodged against Vaulin, KAT’s net worth is estimated at over US$54 million (AU$72 million), while annual advertising revenue ranges between US$12.5 million (AU$16.7 million) to US$22.3 million (AU$30 million).

“Vaulin was allegedly running a worldwide digital piracy website that stole more than $1 billion in profits from the US entertainment industry,” said Executive Associate Director Peter T. Edge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)

“Protecting legitimate commerce is one of HSI’s highest priorities. With the cooperation of our law enforcement partners, we will continue to aggressively bring to justice those who enrich themselves by stealing the creative work of U.S. artists,” Edge added.

Vaulin’s arrest was an inter-agency effort among the US DOJ, International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and the Polish Border Guard, and National Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the US DOJ, Senior Counsel Ryan K. Dickey of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys William E. Ridgway and Devlin N. Su of the Northern District of Illinois are prosecuting the case against Vaulin. Nevertheless, the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty, according to the authorities.

Unlike Kickass Torrents, another digital file sharing website, Pirate Bay, remains online despite facing similar lawsuits.