The Pirate Bay cofounder Gottfrid Svartholm was indicted today on hacking charges unrelated to his one-year prison sentence for running the world's most notorious and illicit file-sharing service.
According to Swedish prosecutors, the 27-year-old is accused of hacking into Nordea Bank to withdraw money, and of hacking into several Swedish companies and the government's federal taxing agency.
"A large amount of data from companies and agencies was taken during the hack, including a large amount of personal data, such as personal identity numbers of people with protected identities," prosecutor Henrik Olin said in a statement.
Three others were indicted in connection to the hacks, prosecutors said. Olin told Swedish media that Svartholm was the "main person and brains behind the hacker attack." According to the indictment, the authorities seized a computer and chat transcripts of Svartholm and the other suspects.
Svartholm was arrested in September in Cambodia and deported to Sweden under an arrest warrant in connection to his Pirate Bay conviction.
Sweden's Supreme Court last year upheld the prison sentences of the four men convicted of running The Pirate Bay. Peter Sunde faces eight months; Fredrik Neij, 10 months; Carl Lundström served his four-month term. Svartholm was handed one year. They share combined fines of more than $6.8 million. Sunde is seeking clemency. Neij's whereabouts are unknown, and is believed to have fled Sweden.
They were convicted in 2009 in a joint civil and criminal proceeding in Sweden that pitted the entertainment industry and the government against the four defendants and the torrent-based file-sharing site, which points the way to free games, movies, software and music, much of it copyrighted.
The Pirate Bay is used by millions and is notorious for its rebellious nature.
