Trouble In LavaLand?

I was quite upset when I learned of the irresponsibility exercised by Lavasoft personnel when a BETA definition file was posted on the download server for approximately 4.5 hours yesterday. It was quietly replaced and an update was posted as "Fixed False Positive" with the same reference number as three days before, but with a new date and hash.

It appears, however, that managing the updates is the very least of the problems at Lavasoft these days. While checking the forums at Freedomlist today, I came across a post indicating that Lavasoft is in trouble with the Swedish Tax Authorities. The post included links to several on-line Swedish language articles from sites identified as one of the largest Swedish newspapers and largest tech news site.

Considering that I have spent a considerable amount of personal time over the years helping users with Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Ad-Watch products, needless to say, I decided to investigate further. Using the Swedish to English translator at Systran, the following is roughly the gist of some of the issues being raised against Nicolas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund from the articles linked at the end of this post:

• Lavasoft has not submitted financial statements to the Swedish Tax Authority since 2004
  
  {Note: 2004 is the year Ad-Aware SE was released and the new research facility was opened in Finland (and closed soon after).}

• Numerous suppliers have petitioned "Senior Enforcement Officers" for payment.

• Nicolas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund, declared together 8,8 millions sek in private income last year - and large amounts the year before.
  
  {So, what was Nic and Ann-Christine's personal income last year? Here's the conversion of 8,8 SEK to U.S. Dollars. Read million dollars:
  
  88.00 Sweden Kronor = 12.4588 United States Dollars
  (1 SEK = 0.141577 USD) | (1 USD = 7.06330 SEK)}

• The Swedish Government apparently does not appreciate that company funds were used to protect Nic and Ann-Christine's weekend cottage

• Millions in salary and benefits have not been paid
  
  
• Confusing company funds with personal monies, including the purchase of TV devices and exercise bike, invoiced to the company.
  
  
• Use of the company car/driver by Ann-Christine for transportation to and from work.
  
  
• The Swedish Government is also questioning Nicolas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund about property in Germany that it appears from the translation is in the name of Lavasoft, and that Nic's brother lives in free of charge, purportedly for his providing web design services free of charge.
  

• Among other things, there has apparently been large, continuous payments to different American bank accounts, without invoices or written agreements.

As most people know, when there is a problem in the security world, the place to check first is BroadBand Reports Security Forum (commonly referred to as BBR). I was not disappointed. A thread at BBR led me to this post by someone using the nickname "Diablo2". It appears that the translation by Diablo2 is very similar to what I obtained from Systran.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The final financial determination with regard to Lavasoft, Nicolas Stark and Ann-Christine Åkerlund is up to the Swedish Tax Authorities. As to the determination of false/positives, Beta files posted as final product on the download server and a promised update to software that has been in the making since 2004, that is up to the public.


References:

• http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=913&a=324753
• http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=147&a=324936
• http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.94960
• http://it24.idg.se/2.2275/1.94960

Disclaimer: The information presented herein is based on translations from Swedish to English of the referenced publications using the on-line translator at Systran. No warranty of the accuracy of the translation is provided.