Pirate Bay buyer banned from offering shares

The sale of BitTorrrent tracking site The Pirate Bay is in doubt after the Swedish stock exchange banned its potential buyer, Global Gaming Factory (GGF), from selling its shares after concluding that the company had "misled" investors.

A disciplinary group at the AktieTorget exchange found that GGF had "provided false information", displayed "a lack of accountability" and "seriously violated" the exchange's transparency principles.

The group said that most of GGF's public statements since June were questionable. The company announced in June that it would acquire The Pirate Bay for 60 million kronor (AU$9.1m).

Banishment from the Swedish stock exchange is a serious barrier to GGF's acquisition of The Pirate Bay, and the allegations of misbehaviour could lead to one of its representatives being arrested.

Sweden's Economic Crimes Bureau has launched an investigation into possible insider trading that involved a dramatic increase in GGF's share price a week before the company announced that it would acquire The Pirate Bay.

Named and shamed in the AktieTorget report was GGF chief executive Hans Pandeya, the company's largest stakeholder. GGF is also accused of not having the money to buy The Pirate Bay when the company told the public that it did.

Pandeya gave his side of the story in an exclusive interview with V3.co.uk.

The company had claimed that it was in the final stages of signing a content deal with a major entertainment company, but this was also untrue, the disciplinary group claimed. Pandeya could provide no proof that he had received a bid to buy The Pirate Bay from unnamed Russian investors.

The group noted how some of GGF's and Pandeya's public statements were followed by increases in the company's stock price, presumably to demonstrate their effect on the market.

Pandeya has denied any wrongdoing, and said on Wednesday that the acquisition will go ahead. Instead he has been blaming AktieTorget's investigators for some of the company's woes.