Submission + - Problems Collecting Pirate Bay Funds To Pay Fine
digithed writes: The Svenska Dagbladet newspaper in Sweden has an article (which I have summarised since I speak Swedish) reporting that the Swedish national debt collection agency (Kronofogdemyndigheten, or the Bailiffs in UK English) are saying that, after initial investigations, the record labels' chances of getting any of the 30 million kronor ($4 million) they were awarded in the Pirate Bay trial is slim to none.
Three of the accused (Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg) have virtually no funds whatsoever. Peter Sunde has shares in his own publicly traded company which in theory could be confiscated, but the company is doing so badly at the moment that the chances of raising any funds this way is small. The fourth accused (Carl Lundström) is the only one of the four with any substantial funds (mostly due to his family inheritance of the Wasa bread empire). But, it turns out that, he is actually registered for tax purposes in Switzerland where his bank account is also located. This means these funds are off-limits to the Swedish debt collection agency. He does own property in Sweden but this is only worth approximately 1.7 million kronor ($230,000) according to the Swedish tax agency (Skatteverket or Inland Revenue) with whom Lundström is still involved in a long term disagreement on exactly how much wealth tax he is required to pay. It is also suspected that the property that he owns in Sweden has an outstanding mortgage financed outside of Sweden, making it even more difficult to confiscate the property which is effectively owned by a foreign financial institution.