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Kickass Torrents takedown

July 2016, Piracy and IP
Led by Homeland Security Investigations

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Domains seized.

See what happened

What happened to the people?

Officials reported 1 apprehended.
1 apprehended named in the public record.
Group accounted for: Likely complete

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

See what happened afterward

DOJ/HSI/IRS-CI filed a criminal complaint, seized domains, and coordinated the arrest of alleged operator Artem Vaulin in Poland, disrupting the Kickass Torrents piracy site.

Date
July 2016
Target
Kickass Torrents (KAT), piracy website
Activity
Piracy and IP
Operational lead
HSI
Partners
Policja, IRS-CI[1]
Jurisdiction
Not established
Outcome
Domains seized.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
Federal criminal complaint; domain seizure warrants; Polish arrest warrant.
Group accounted for
Likely complete

Infrastructure

Domains seized, with no count in the record.

Identifier Recorded as Status Notes
Not published Domain Seized, United States Not established[1]

Domains and onion addresses are shown defanged. Where the record gives a count but no identifier, the count is shown in place of one. This list carries only what appears in the cited sources.

1
apprehended

Named in the public record: 1 apprehended.

Figures count individuals named in charging documents and official statements, each person once per outcome. People alleged to be involved but not publicly identified are not counted.

Reported and named. Officials reported 1 apprehended. 1 apprehended named in the public record. The two figures come from different places and are never added together. Officials publish a headline total, and this index counts only the individuals it can name from the cited record.
Person Role Current public status
Administrator of Kickass Torrents Arrested
Charging authority
Not established in the public record
Main charges
Not established in the public record
Case number
Not established in the public record
Arresting authority
Polish Police
Arrest location
Poland
Extradition status
Not established in the public record
Conviction or plea
Not established in the public record
Sentence
Not established in the public record
Segment
Core operator
Sources
[1]
Full record
Everything indexed for Artem Vaulin

Artem Vaulin

Administrator of Kickass Torrents. Current public status: Arrested.

Charging authority
Not established in the public record
Main charges
Not established in the public record
Case number
Not established in the public record
Arresting authority
Polish Police
Arrest location
Poland
Extradition status
Not established in the public record
Conviction or plea
Not established in the public record
Sentence
Not established in the public record
Segment
Core operator
Sources
[1]
Full record
Everything indexed for Artem Vaulin

Rows expand to show charging authority, case identifiers, custody status, and sources.

Group accounted for: Likely complete

Alleged sole primary operator arrested in Poland.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Artem Vaulin, administrator of Kickass Torrents website, arrested in Poland

    US DOJ, July 20, 2016, Source grade P1

    Establishes the Kickass Torrents domain seizure and Vaulin's arrest in Poland.

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note. Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.