The founder of illegal file-sharing website OiNK had almost £190,000 in the bank, a court heard today.
The prosecution at Teeside Crown Court today in 26-year-old Alan Ellis' conspiracy to defraud case claim the money provided evidence he was fronting a "large scale, professional and clever" piracy operation.
The invitation-only site was closed down in the autumn of 2007 three years after Ellis launched it.
The prosecution claim the site facilitated 21million downloads amongst its 200,000 members.
According to the BBC, prosecuting lawyer Peter Makepeace alleged no money was going into the music industry, instead “Every penny was going to Mr Ellis.”
"He hadn't sung a note, he hadn't played an instrument, he hadn't produced anything. The money was not going to the people it rightly belonged to, it was going to Mr Ellis," he continued.
Ellis, from Middlesbrough, denies the charges against him. The case continues.
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