Pirate Bay co-founder gets two years in prison

Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been sentenced to two years in prison by a District Court in Sweden for his role in the hacking of several Swedish agencies and companies, then also attempting to transfer money out of the Nordea bank.

According to PCMag The verdict against Svartholm Warg and his co-defendants was handed down by Nacka District Court on Thursday. Lawyers for the defendants and the prosecutor have three weeks to appeal the verdict.

The data intrusion charge is related to the hacking of a mainframe belonging to Logica, now CGI, an IT firm that provided tax services to the Swedish government, and a mainframe of Nordea bank. The fraud charges stem from a number of attempted money transfers from accounts at Nordea, of which one was successful. Two of the attempts that were part of the case were dismissed. The receiving bank couldn’t find a record of one transfer attempt, and the other transfer was interrupted, according to prosecutor Henrik Olin.

Svartholm Warg and his co-defendant in the hacking case have never disputed that the intrusions actually happened the way the prosecutor has alleged—that the hacks were carried out from their computers. However, they have denied any involvement, saying in their defense that their computers must have been remote controlled or that other people used the computers to carry out the actions, according to the court.

Svartholm Warg was originally arrested in Cambodia in August last year and deported to Sweden. Earlier this week, the Nacka District Court decided that Svartholm Warg may be extradited to Denmark to face hacking charges there, as well. It is too soon to say when and how that will happen, according to Olin.

As of this time there is no word on whether he is still sporting his pirate beard.