US Seeks Extradition of Ukrainian Operator of Torrents Website

The Ukrainian owner of the world’s most popular source of movies that are pirated as soon as they appear in theaters has been arrested, prompting a US extradition request to face charges of criminal copyright infringement, the US Department of Justice said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The complaint alleges that KAT receives more than 50 million unique visitors per month and is estimated to be the 69th most frequently visited website on the Internet, according to the release.

"Artem Vaulin, 30, of Kharkiv, Ukraine, was arrested today in Poland and is charged by criminal complaint," the release said on Wednesday. "The United States will seek to extradite Vaulin" to face trial.

According to the complaint, Vaulin’s Kickass Torrents (KAT) website has consistently made movies available for downloading even though they were still in theaters.

Several motion pictures currently available for downloading and sharing on KAT are still showing in theatres, including "Captain America: Civil War," "Now You See Me 2," "Independence Day: Resurgence" and "Finding Dory," according to the release.

KAT also distributed hundreds of millions of movies, video games, television programs, musical programs and other electronic media worth more than $1 billion since 2008, the release explained.