Kazaa woman in trouble with Sydney Court

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the outfit that owns Kazaa is in trouble with a Sydney Court after flogging her mansion and sticking the cash in a tax haven.

According to the Washington Post, the move meant that record companies who are trying to take Kazaa to the cleaners can't get their paws on it.

Nikki Hemming, of Sharman Networks, was in the dock in the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney over a row about a list of her assets ahead of a possible court order for damages against Kazaa's owners.

A federal court judge has already ruled that Kazaa's owners, including Hemming, should have done a lot more to stop copyright infringements by Kazaa users.

While Kazaa has appealed, the Australian recording industry has vowed to seek millions of dollars in damages. Fearing that Hemming and the others might send their cash outside the court's reach, a court order was put in place to freeze their assets.

But now it appears that Hemming was able to get some money offshore before her assets were frozen.

In February 2003, Hemming bought a $1.7 million dollar house in Sydney, partly funded by a $810,000 unsecured loan from a company in Vanuatu with an interest rate of 3.5 percent, well. She flogged the house in December 2004 to John Myers, an accountant who worked for Sharman, for $2.1 million and paid back the loan.

Laywers for the recording industry claim that she rushed through the sale because the Kazaa trial was close to ending and she was pessimistic about her prospects.

Hemming denies this and says that the sale of the house has nothing to do with with the trial. µ