Private Internet Access

Posted May 26, 2021 21:21 UTC (Wed) by garrison (subscriber, #39220)
Parent article: Turmoil at the freenode IRC network

What is Andrew Lee's current relationship with Private Internet Access? The "PIA Team" link at the bottom of their web page unhelpfully redirects to their "About Us" page, which does not list members of the team.

Private Internet Access

Posted May 26, 2021 21:36 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Presumably this is for the same reason it was so hard to figure out the membership of Freenode Ltd's board: Andrew Lee wanted to conceal the fact that it was a one-man band so he could gain fake authority by saying "the board has decided" when he actually meant "I decided".

Private Internet Access

Posted May 26, 2021 21:56 UTC (Wed) by vstinner (subscriber, #42675) [Link] (3 responses)

Extract of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Internet_Access : " In 2018, former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès was named chief technology officer of PIA's parent company, London Trust Media." and "The company was founded by the American-born Andrew Lee."

By the way, the Wikipedia article also says "London Trust Media also owns the Freenode IRC network" since December 21, 2017.

Private Internet Access

Posted May 27, 2021 10:21 UTC (Thu) by h2g2bob (subscriber, #130451) [Link] (2 responses)

London Trust Media does not appear to be registered in the UK.

But Freenode Ltd is: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10308021/officers

It looks like Lee is the only director and is majority shareholder. PIA and LTM are not mentioned.

Private Internet Access

Posted May 27, 2021 20:34 UTC (Thu) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]

London Trust Media was renamed to (or part of its assets were taken over by?) Imperial Family Companies[1]. I assume this refers to him pretending to be the crown prince of Korea…

And London Trust Media sold PIA in 2019 to Kape Technologies[2], a company that has been linked with spreading malware[3] (which is one of the reasons why people don’t trust Andrew Lee).

[1] https://imperialfamily.com/
[2] https://www.techradar.com/news/cyberghost-owner-buys-pia-...
[3] https://www.cnet.com/news/what-is-kape-technologies-what-...

Private Internet Access

Posted May 27, 2021 20:40 UTC (Thu) by dsommers (subscriber, #55274) [Link]

It's registered in Delaware, US, iirc.

Private Internet Access

Posted May 26, 2021 21:58 UTC (Wed) by nybble41 (subscriber, #55106) [Link] (3 responses)

This was PIA's official statement on the matter[0]:

> Private Internet Access has no connection to Freenode at all anymore. PIA was owned by London Trust Media, but Kape acquired PIA in December of 2019 and has had no connection since then. We do not have any involvement or knowledge of any takeover of Freenode.

This aligns with what I've seen in other discussions, that Andrew Lee may have been the founder of PIA but later sold it and has nothing to do with its current management or operation.

[0] https://twitter.com/buyvpnservice/status/1395212901544337411

Private Internet Access

Posted May 27, 2021 1:13 UTC (Thu) by Paf (subscriber, #91811) [Link] (2 responses)

This statement conspicuously avoids any mention of Lee. I don’t see why or how it indicates he’s no longer involved?

Private Internet Access

Posted May 27, 2021 14:33 UTC (Thu) by smurf (subscriber, #17840) [Link]

That's not at all unusual.

Private Internet Access

Posted Jun 3, 2021 17:47 UTC (Thu) by nybble41 (subscriber, #55106) [Link]

> This statement conspicuously avoids any mention of Lee. I don’t see why or how it indicates he’s no longer involved?

Lee's interest in PIA was through the London Trust Media, Inc. (LTMI) holding company. The sale to Kape Technologies means that Lee no longer owns or controls PIA. It was LTMI, not Kape or PIA, which was involved in the Freenode incident.