Artem Vaulin, a 30 years old man and the owner of the most visited website for downloading various files illegaly (movies, videogames, books etc.) was arrested and detained this Wednesay the 20th July. This led to the immediate seizure of domain names associated with the website. As from yesterday the website is no longer available. “Copyright infringement exacts a large toll, a very human one, on the artists and businesses whose livelihood hinges on their creative inventions. 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.” Artem Vaulin was arrested in Poland and was charged of running a website that stole more than $1 billion to the US entertainment industry. Also, the latter is accused of conspiracy to commit money laundry. It is also said that KickAss Torrent was allegedly operating under the auspices of a Ukrainian-based front company called "Cryptoneat". According to the US authority, KickAss Torrent was ranked 69th most frequently visited website on the internet with over 50 million unique visitors per month. Also, KickAss Torrent is estimated at $54 million with an annual advertising revenue which ranges from about $12.5 million to $22.3 million according to the complaint. we will continue to aggressively bring to justice those who enrich themselves by stealing the creative work of U.S. artists.” Also, according to what reports says KickAss torrent was allegedly working under network of computer servers located around the world. It was working under the domains kickasstorrent.com, kat.ph, kickass.to, kickass.so, a,n kat.cr. However, the charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, as for now, his bank account and 7 domain names have been seized. If he is proven guilty, he could face a maximum imprisonment term of 5 years and up to 20 years in case he is guilty of committing money laundry.
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