Exclusive Q&A: GGF chief executive Hans Pandeya

The future of The Pirate Bay is still in doubt

Hans Pandeya, chief executive of Global Gaming Factory X, defends the numerous allegations against his company.

V3.co.uk: How do you respond to those who have accused GGF of being unfit to take over and run the Pirate Bay?
Hans Pandeya: It has been a bizarre experience since we proposed buying Pirate Bay. There has been so much nonsense. Everything that is said about this company has been twisted. This is because there is a group of people, including our former board member Johan Sellström, who wants to take over the site.

Some reports say you have been reported to Swedish law agencies by Sellström because you owe him more than six million kroner (£518,000). Is this true?
It is clear why Sellström is being so active [because he wants to buy The Pirate Bay himself] and we have already filed a police complaint against him. When Sellström's claims that GGF owes him a lot of money are put to law enforcement agencies, it looks like the company is in a lot of debt and casts doubt on our ability to acquire. We will be taking this to court but we will be waiting until after our Thursday shareholder meeting before we take a thorough look at this. We know that it is Sellström and his gang that are creating these reports, although it took a while to identify him. Sellström's claims led to the most extraordinary headlines on Saturday that the Swedish crime agency has launched an investigation into my company, but it is really a PR company that is behind all of this.

Another report said the trading of GGF shares has been restricted by the Swedish stock exchange because it did not receive requested information about the company's finances. Others said that the exchange had halted trading on suspicion that GGF did not have enough money to close The Pirate Bay deal. Are these rumours true?
Lots of people want to buy The Pirate Bay so we will not reveal investor names until after the acquisition for competitive purposes. We have said this all along several times. Because the market is not sure of our backers, there is an extra look into that process [by the exchange]. On Friday last week, the stock exchange wanted documents to confirm and has halted trading until we disclose this information. We will disclose the investors after our shareholder meeting on Thursday.

Another report has it that GGF had not begun preparing the technology needed to launch the new Pirate Bay site and had no plans a week before the buy. Is this accurate?
We have mapped out the plans for the technology but we will not tell anyone what we are doing or where it is. We first will take over the site and then we will switch on the system. There are two teams we do have in place, one that will manage the site and another that will scan the content [for illegal material]. These are two teams in two separate countries.

There are claims that GGF chaiman Marcus Bergam is stepping down because of the negative publicity the company has been getting in recent weeks. Is this true?
We actually announced this ourselves in a document we are set to approve with our shareholders. One of the main points in the document is that we are creating a new board.

[When GGF first announced its intention to acquire The Pirate Bay, the board members were Pandeya, Sellström and Bergman. Pandeya is now the only one left in the company.]