Cambodia was Paid $59 Mill to Extradite PBay Founder
 

Pirate Bay Founder Arrest Followed By $59m Swedish Aid Package For Cambodia

Following his arrest last Thursday it was confirmed yesterday that Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm will be leaving Cambodia as a matter of some urgency.

Early Tuesday a meeting took place in Cambodia between National Deputy Police Commissioner General Sok Phal and Swedish authorities. Due to the lack of an extradition treaty, Sweden made a request for Svartholm to be deported. Cambodian authorities agreed.

“We will use the Immigration Law against him to deport him out of our country and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng will sign on the deportation request letter from the police commissioner soon,” said Phal. “We will have to just deport him, wherever he goes, we don’t know, but he has to be out of Cambodia.”

While it perhaps isn’t all that unusual for Swedish authorities to be in Cambodia, a development today will join a long line of interesting political coincidences in which one nation appears to be rewarded by another following an apparently unconnected favor that everyone but the politicians are suspicious of.

Today a senior Cambodian official announced that the Government of Sweden had signed to provide Cambodia with 400 million Swedish Kronor ($59.4 million) in financial aid. The money is destined for democratic development, education, and other causes.

Speaking after the signing ceremony between Cambodian deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon and Swedish Ambassador Anne Hoglund, Chhon said his country was grateful for the package.

“Cambodia considers Sweden as a highly valued development partner and we will make every best effort to ensure that the aid be utilized effectively in an efficient and transparent manner,” he said.

Hoglund said that Sweden is committed to strengthening bilateral ties with Cambodia, something that interestingly enough was also said by President Obama’s trade ambassador on his visit to the country last Thursday, the day Svartholm was arrested.

Gottfrid Svartholm is currently in Cambodian detention and facing deportation.
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Absolutely disgusting,,,,, all the poor starving folk around the world, that could have benefited from that huge amount of money!!! :arrrrrgh:

Re: Cambodia was Paid $59 Mill to Extradite PBay Founder
 

Pirate Bay Founder Arrest Related To Tax Hack, Not Piracy

Last week police arrested Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

Initially little was known about the reasons for the arrest, but after a few days the authorities confirmed that Sweden was the driving force behind the actions. According to a spokesperson for the Cambodian police, Svartholm’s detainment is connected to alleged cyber-crimes.

“His arrest was made at the request of the Swedish government for a crime related to information technology,” he said.

Following this statement it was assumed that “information technology” referred to Svartholm’s involvement with The Pirate Bay. However, several sources now dispute this and say that Svartholm’s arrest is related to a hacking operation that may date back to 2010.

The hack targeted Swedish IT company Logica, which supplies services to the Swedish tax office. Earlier this year the hack made the headlines when the tax numbers of 9,000 Swedes leaked online.

In the months that followed two Swedish citizens in their thirties were arrested in connection with the hack. One of the suspects in question was a member of Piratbyran, the group that founded The Pirate Bay back in 2003 and was disbanded two years ago.

Svartholm would be the third suspect in the hacking case, which was previously described by the International Public Prosecution Office as “a big and sensitive investigation.”

A source told TorrentFreak that Svartholm is not awaiting his deportation in prison but is being held at the interior ministry’s counter terrorism department. This is confirmed by former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde and the sources of Swedish news site DN.se.

On Twitter, Peter Sunde adds that Svartholm (aka Anakata) has not been offered a lawyer, and that the Swedish foreign ministry is not helping the Pirate Bay founder either.

“Swedish foreign ministry has not offered anakata legal help. They must do that in Sweden, but ignore it when they are behind the warrant,” Sunde says.

Svartholm is being held in an office space accompanied by personnel from the interior ministry and is currently awaiting the authorities’ next steps. On Monday, Cambodian officials confirmed that the Pirate Bay founder will eventually be deported.

Re: Cambodia was Paid $59 Mill to Extradite PBay Founder
 

While I hate this for Gottfrid, you can be sure you won't be seeing this repeated many times because of the price tag.

It does show that the entertainment cartels put a price on examples and it is extremely high in the efforts and price they will pay for that example. I can not but help think that the money given Cambodia was not solely Sweden's. Someone else is footing the bill and likely several someone elses. I would suspect that it is the usual culprits involved.

Nor does it surprise me that some different charge was made. However one should note he is wanted for 'questioning' on the charge of hacking. Wanna bet once they have their hooks on him, he'll not be released if he had nothing to do with the hacking. This is appears to me to be a trumped up charge to get a hold of him.