As anonymous investors pulled out and promises from the shareholders that they would come up with the funds themselves came to nothing, the deadline for the sale passed and the site stayed in the hands of Reservella, the Seychelles-based holding company that acquired The Pirate Bay two years ago.

But for those missing the optimistic press releases, bold statements and dramas of the attempted purchase by GGF, today brings good news.

According to a report, Reservella – with a helping hand from ex-Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde – are in fresh talks with four potential buyers.

While the identities of two of the parties remains unknown, hints have been dropped about the other pair.

The first, GamersGate, is a Swedish company specializing in online computer games. Its CEO Theodore Bergquist, however, is playing his cards close to his chest.

“We are looking at many potential deals,” Bergquist told Di. “All I can say is that The Pirate Bay is an interesting brand loaded with great potential for those who deal with it properly.”

Holding a B.A. degree from Stockholm University, Bergquist joined Paradox Entertainment in May 2001 as CEO and was responsible for overall strategy, financial performance and growth initiatives. In 2004 he acquired the Interactive division of Paradox Entertainment and in April 2006 he became CEO of GamersGate, which was initially Paradox’s digital distribution portal.

Bergquist reported earlier this year that GamersGate had achieved 100% growth in business during 2008, both in terms of revenue and in the amount of new customers and titles on the site. The company is aiming at achieving up to 200% more during 2009. Owning The Pirate Bay’s domain would certainly help them achieve that.

The second potential buyer is a rather more familiar name – the utterly resilient Hans Pandeya.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

This week the appeal was heard before the Amsterdam court. BREIN’s lawyer tried to convince the judge that the three are responsible for the site’s daily operations. Lawyer Ernst-Jan Louwers on the other hand represented the Pirate Bay defendants, arguing that BREIN sued the wrong people.

In addition, Louwers revealed that BREIN brought in a credit report, apparently faked in an attempt to mislead the court. The report in question shows Fredrik Neij as the CEO of Seychelles-based Reservella, the company believed to own The Pirate Bay.

This misstep by BREIN was pointed out to the court, and former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde later wrote a detailed article summing up the inconsistencies. Now, a few days later everyone can see for themselves that the report is not what its supposed to be.

The documents prooving that the evidence presented by BREIN was false have now been exposed, on The Pirate Bay of course. The ‘leaked’ torrent (mirror) contains the following information:

- A fax of the Experian report as sent by BREIN.
- A pdf version of the Experian report with the unedited footer.
- A fax from Mossack Fonseca stating that they never acted as registered agent as the report claims.
- A document from the authorities stating that the company registered with the ID 32549 is NOT Reservella.

TorrentFreak contacted BREIN for a response to the alleged misstep, and director Tim Kuik told us that the Experian report was not used by their lawyer in court because there was already sufficient evidence that Fredrik, Gottfrid and Peter are responsible for The Pirate Bay.

“Denying their responsibility and playing hide and seek is what the gentlemen of The Pirate Bay have been doing since they began their illegal business”, said Kuik. “We have sufficient reason to assume that they are still responsible.”

“The company in the Seychelles looks like a thin veil to cover up what is really going on and it appears that they too like to play hide and seek just like the gents from The Pirate Bay,” he added.

The lawyer for the defendants totally disagrees with BREIN’s assessment. Aside from BREIN’s alleged attempt to fabricate evidence, he told the court that the three defendants are not the owners of the site. Even if they were, The Pirate Bay in itself is not illegal because it’s merely one of many distribution platforms that are available on the Internet, the lawyer told the court.

Whose side the court will take and whether or not the alleged attempt to manipulate evidence will be taken into account will be known in two weeks, when the appeal verdict is set to be announced.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.