One of the paintings by Sydney Teerhuis-Moar posted on the Can Art Coast To Coast website.

Manitoba's Justice Department has decided a website that promotes paintings by a convicted killer who cut up his victim in a hotel bathtub does not violate a law that prevents people from profiting from their crimes.

The department began an investigation in May into Can Art Coast to Coast. The site features paintings by Sydney Teerhuis-Moar alongside newspaper articles that describe his brutal killing of Robin Greene.

Teerhuis-Moar, 40, was found guilty of second-degree murder last December. His trial was told that he met Greene at a Winnipeg bar and took him to a hotel room, where he cut off his head and penis, removed his internal organs and cut his torso into several pieces, which were left in a bathtub.

The website claims to have several original paintings by Teerhuis-Moar and asks viewers whether the paintings should be sold.

The government started looking at the website this past spring to determine whether it violated a law passed in 2005 that has not yet been tested in court.

The law forbids criminals, or people acting on their behalf, to make money by selling memoirs or memorabilia. It includes fines of up to $50,000 and allows the government to seize any profits after obtaining a court order.

The Can Art website does not appear to have a direct link to Teerhuis-Moar, and a spokesman for the Justice Department said the investigation found no "information demonstrating that the criteria exist to pursue charges."

Calls to the number listed on the website were answered by a man who identified himself as Travis Findlay and who described himself as a former cellmate of Teerhuis-Moar. He said Teerhuis-Moar gave him the paintings prior to his trial in exchange for clothing and other items.

Manitoba is not alone in its legislation to ban criminals from profiting from their actions. The Saskatchewan legislature passed a similar law this spring after learning that Colin Thatcher was planning to write a book.

Thatcher, a former provincial cabinet minister, spent 22 years in prison after he was convicted of killing his former wife, JoAnn Wilson, in the family's garage in 1983.