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Tim Kuik's Dilemma

Will this criminal be brought to justice?


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HOOFDDORP (Rixstep) -- It's not always easy being an enforcer for the MAFIAA. It's mostly lucrative beyond your dreams with wild wild perks but there are moments when you really feel like giving up.

BREIN's Tim Kuik must be having one of those moments now.


Peter Sunde's revelations on 8 October were intentionally somewhat incomplete. 'I left some parts a bit open', he wrote on his blog.

The original report pointed to how Tim Kuik and BREIN forged an Experian document in an attempt to avoid €60,000 in Dutch court costs; Kuik countered by denying all involvement in the forgeries; and now Sunde tells more.

There are namely two completely different versions of the forged Experian document in the wild - and the second version, disclosed now on Wikileaks, is potentially even more incriminating.

While there were red flags waving like mad on the first copy, this one could go totally beyond the pale as it contains a complete embedded XML metadata description.

41 0 obj
<</Subtype/XML/Length 3326/Type/Metadata>>stream
<?xpacket begin="
" id="W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d"?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="Adobe XMP Core 4.0-c316 44.253921 Sun Oct 01 2006 17:14:39">
   <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:xap="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/">
         <xap:CreateDate>2009-07-30T15:55:34+08:00</xap:CreateDate>
         <xap:ModifyDate>2009-08-28T17:12:52+02:00</xap:ModifyDate>
         <xap:MetadataDate>2009-08-28T17:12:52+02:00</xap:MetadataDate>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:pdf="http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/">
         <pdf:Producer>Highwire by Corda Technologies (using iText 1.2 by lowagie.com)</pdf:Producer>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
         <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:xapMM="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/">
         <xapMM:DocumentID>uuid:d0a226a3-a0f2-4fad-954e-0c2e1f41c637</xapMM:DocumentID>
         <xapMM:InstanceID>uuid:691d60a3-eb52-4cce-be7d-f593a68009ed</xapMM:InstanceID>
      </rdf:Description>
   </rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>
<?xpacket end="w"?>
endstream
endobj

Check the lines beginning with '<xap:CreateDate>', '<xap:ModifyDate>', and '<xap:MetadataDate>'.

  • The creation date for this document is 30 July 2009 15:55:34 in a time zone +0800 from GMT.
  • But the document was thereafter modified on 28 August in a time zone +0200 from GMT - precisely where BREIN have their offices.

Experian have offices in 36 countries, whereof several in time zone +0800 to which the task could have been forwarded.

Yet other evidence points to the document being genuine - in particular a sample report found on an Experian website. The XML metadata in this document is as follows.

31 0 obj
<</Length 3331/Subtype/XML/Type/Metadata>>stream
<?xpacket begin="
" id="W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d"?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="Adobe XMP Core 4.2.1-c043 52.372728 2009/01/18-15:08:04">
   <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:xmp="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/">
         <xmp:CreateDate>2007-11-12T16:07:53+08:00</xmp:CreateDate>
         <xmp:ModifyDate>2009-06-04T11:21:46+09:00</xmp:ModifyDate>
         <xmp:MetadataDate>2009-06-04T11:21:46+09:00</xmp:MetadataDate>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:pdf="http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/">
         <pdf:Producer>Highwire by Corda Technologies (using iText 1.2 by lowagie.com)</pdf:Producer>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
         <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
      </rdf:Description>
      <rdf:Description rdf:about=""
            xmlns:xmpMM="http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/">
         <xmpMM:DocumentID>uuid:05368bfe-ef71-49a3-9d7c-f7965974ce5a</xmpMM:DocumentID>
         <xmpMM:InstanceID>uuid:c3c0b614-ba0f-44ab-b229-254d67103558</xmpMM:InstanceID>
      </rdf:Description>
   </rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>
<?xpacket end="w"?>
endstream
endobj

Both documents use the same authoring tools, both have additional modify and metadata time stamps in different time zones.

Although Experian may be able to explain the discrepancies in their sample, it's not at all as likely Tim Kuik can explain the discrepancies in BREIN's own. Swedish daily DN attempted on several occasions for over one month to contact Kuik but to no avail.

'We're not relying solely on the Experian report. We have a lot of additional evidence proving that Neij, Warg, and Sunde own The Pirate Bay', wrote Kuik to DN on a Sony VAIO laptop he admits confiscating from Dutch pirates. And he refuses to discuss details of his 'additional evidence'.

Fredrik Neij is very adamant about his role. 'First and foremost I want to point out I have not owned The Pirate Bay for several years and that since the transfer of ownership I have not been involved in the technical maintenance of the website. The media continue to attribute ownership to me but their information is incorrect.'

Peter Sunde previously pointed to the following 'gaffes' in Kuik's allegedly forged document.

  • The corporate name is given merely as 'Reservella' without a descriptive suffix such as Ltd, Inc, plc, or the like. This is the limit of the information available through the ICANN registrar where Sunde suspects Kuik got his information (rather than through Experian).
  • Reservella's licence number as given in Kuik's forged document is '32549' which actually leads to Elara Ltd, a corporation dissolved in 2007. Sunde obtained this information by personally contacting the Seychelles' SIBA.
  • Fredrik's full name would have been used in official corporate documents - not just 'Fredrik Neij' as found in the ICANN registrar information Kuik is suspected of using for the forgery.
  • Neij is listed as being a citizen of the Seychelles.
  • The Seychelles corporation registration authority SIBA do not collate information on corporate directors.
  • Mossack Fonseca are cited as representatives in the forged document but they have vehemently denied any such connection on two separate occasions. Mossack Fonseca & Co are a reputable law firm acting as company formation agents with offices in the Bahamas, British Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Republic of Panama, Samoa, and the Seychelles.
  • Reservella is listed as being incorporated on the same day the domain thepiratebay.org was registered (28 June 2004). Neij points out corporate registrations can take considerable time whereas domain registrations take about five minutes. 'Who's going to wait to register a domain until the corporate paperwork is completed?'

Peter Sunde tells DN it's terribly sad Kuik and BREIN are so desperate to get at people they go outside the law.

'It's tragicomical. In pure desperation they've committed a crime that in Sweden would lead to imprisonment for six years. I don't know yet how this will affect the case but I suspect that the judge who finds out about this won't be too pleased with the people submitting the documents.'

Sunde said he could smell fakery as soon as he'd seen the documents. And as soon as he'd completed his own investigation he filed a police complaint via electronic mail. Next Monday he and/or members of the Dutch pirate party will follow up with a new complaint sent through ordinary channels, charging Kuik with perjury, forgery, and fraud.

To these charges Tim Kuik does have a response. 'They're laying smoke screens', he says. 'It's obvious to us that they're responsible for The Pirate Bay. The courts will decide and they've set the date for their verdict to 22 October!'

Anything's possible, no matter the evidence, as demonstrated by the lower court verdict in Stockholm.

I love this battle. It needs to be a movie or a video game.
 - 'Staticstarter'
I absolutely love Neij and the rest of TPB crew. I wish I could donate money for their legal defence.
 - 'TrollMeister'
Isn't it funny the entire content industry - BREIN, the RIAA, the MPAA, and all the celebrity lawyers - have been claiming TPB and brokep and friends have been earning and enjoying millions for years but no one is yet to provide solid evidence or bank statements proving the same?
 - 'ColDBlizZarD'

See Also
Industry Watch: #fail in .NL
Brokep: Followup in #BREINFAIL
Experian plc: Worldwide Locations
Welcome to La Reserve Hotel Praslin
Mossack Fonseca & Co Legal Services
DN: Pirate Bay-åtalade polisanmäler upphovsrättsorganisation
TorrentFreak: Anti-Piracy Boss Confiscates Confiscated Hacker Laptop
Ars Technica: Reservella: The Shadowy Company Behind The Pirate Bay
WikiLeaks: TPB Legal Information and Potentially Forged Experian Report

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