Pirate Bay buyer complains of smear campaign

Global Gaming Factory (GGF), the Swedish internet café giant attempting to buy The Pirate Bay, claims that it has been the subject of a smear campaign orchestrated chiefly by former GGF board member and chief technology officer Johan Sellström.

In an exclusive interview with V3.co.uk, GGF chief executive Hans Pandeya said that reports at the end of last week claiming that he owed Sellström around £500,000 ($978,250), and that the company was in too much debt to buy The Pirate Bay, were all "bogus".

He also denied rumours that his firm has not even begun to prepare the technology needed to relaunch The Pirate Bay, and other reports that the Swedish stock exchange restricted trading of GGF shares due to irregularities.

Pandeya accused Sellström of trying to jeopardise his company's acquisition of The Pirate Bay by tarnishing GGF's reputation so that he can purchase the file-sharing site himself.

"It has been a bizarre experience since we proposed buying Pirate Bay. There has been so much nonsense," he said. "Everything that is said about this company has been twisted. This is because there is a group of people, including our former board member Sellström, who wants to take over the site."

Sellström could not be reached for comment.

The Pirate Bay faced more problems on Monday, after a district court in Sweden ruled that its internet service provider must close the site as part of an ongoing legal battle with a collection of studios. However, Pirate Bay was down for only a few hours, according to a post on its blog.

GGF announced its intention to buy The Pirate Bay for 60 million Swedish kroner (£4.72m) in June. The company will hand shareholders a proposal on 27 August outlining how The Pirate Bay will operate legally under its new leadership, and the shareholders will then decide whether the acquisition can go ahead.

The Pirate Bay was set up in 2003 by anti-copyright group Piratbyran and has since been run by four individuals who were recently convicted by a Swedish Court of breaking copyright law by allowing the exchange of millions of files every day.

GGF intends to make the site legal by obtaining licences from copyright holders to supply the content, and by constantly scanning the site for illegal content.

Pandeya was asked about a number of reports circulating in the press about himself and GGF, all of which he denied. To read the full exclusive interview with Pandeya, click here.