Denied: US Government Says Kim Dotcom Can’t Recover $42M in Seized Assets
Denied: US Government Says Kim Dotcom Can’t Recover $42M in Seized Assets
June 16, 2017 -
The US Justice Department and the FBI shut down Megaupload in 2012, leveling piracy and copyright-infringement charges against Dotcom and other operators and seizing $42 million in assets in the process. These included luxury cars, a $10,000 watch, bank accounts in New Zealand and Hong Kong, a mansion and an Olaf Mueller photograph worth over $100,000.
An FBI statement at the time said Dotcom’s was "among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime."
The government has also said the "estimated harm" of Dotcom’s actions stood "well in excess of $500 million."
New Zealand’s High Court found in February that Dotcom and associates Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were eligible for extradition to the US, which Dotcom has been fighting ever since. After the ruling Dotcom wrote on Twitter, "New Zealand Copyright Law (92b) makes it clear that an ISP can't be criminally liable for actions of their users. Unless you're Kim Dotcom?"
Dotcom is a German national with permanent residency in New Zealand.
Kim Dotcom Wants FBI’s Comey Questioned for Piracy in New Zealand
Kim Dotcom Wants FBI’s Comey Questioned for Piracy in New Zealand
Back-dated April 26. 2017 -
Dotcom has formally reported Comey to the New Zealand police for the theft of his data by the FBI, and has requested that they question him. (Copy of formal legal complaint.)
The letter goes on to note that the removal has been found by the High Court of New Zealand to have been unlawful.
A New Zealand court ruled in January that Dotcom and others accused alongside him could be extradited to the US, not for the charge of copyright infringement, but on the fraud charge. His lawyer is appealing the decision.
Thursday, July 5, 2018 - Kim Dotcom loses latest legal bid to avoid U.S. extradition
Kim Dotcom loses latest legal bid to avoid U.S. extradition
Flamboyant internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his former colleagues have lost their latest bid to avoid extradition to the U.S. to face criminal charges.
New Zealand’s Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld earlier court rulings that found the men were eligible to be handed over to U.S. authorities.
Dotcom’s lawyer Ira Rothken said they were disappointed with the judgment and planned to file an appeal with New Zealand’s Supreme Court.
“As people will know, I am prepared to fight to get justice, whether it is for me or others,”
Dotcom said in a statement.
The latest decision comes more than six years after U.S. authorities shut down Dotcom’s file-sharing website Megaupload and filed charges of conspiracy, racketeering and money laundering against the men. If found guilty, they could face decades in prison.
Dotcom argues that he can’t be held responsible for others who chose to use his site for illegal purposes, and that any case against him should have been heard in civil court. He says he never lived in the U.S. or even visited the country and didn’t have a company there.
Born in Germany as Kim Schmitz,
Dotcom founded Megaupload in 2005. At one point he lived in a Hong Kong hotel, before being granted permanent residency in New Zealand in 2010. He was arrested in New Zealand in 2012 during a dramatic police raid on his mansion and incarcerated for a month before being released on bail.
Since then,
Dotcom has released a music album, started another internet file-sharing company called Mega and launched a political party, which unsuccessfully contested the nation’s 2014 election.
In addition to
Dotcom, who founded Megaupload and was its biggest shareholder, the U.S. is also seeking to extradite former Megaupload officers Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato. The indictment was filed in the U.S. District Court in eastern Virginia.
Should the latest decision stand, Justice Minister Andrew Little will have the final say on whether
Dotcom is extradited. He told reporters he would wait until
Dotcom has exhausted his legal appeals.
“Extradition is a major thing, it’s an incredible erosion of someone’s liberties,” Little said. “So it is right that we take the time and effort for the legal decision to be correct before I, as Minister of Justice, get to make a decision.”
05.07.2018 - New Zealand Court Clears Kim Dotcom's Extradition to US
New Zealand Court Clears Kim Dotcom's Extradition to US
New Zealand’s Court of Appeal has dismissed a challenge by entrepreneur Kim Dotcom against extradition to the United States on criminal copyright infringement charges.
The court said it had declined "applications for leave to adduce further evidence on appeal" filed by the founder of the file-sharing Megaupload website and three co-defendants – Mathias Ortmann, Bram Van Der Kolk and Finn Habib Batato.
Kim Dotcom said in a statement, published on his Twitter page, that he was "extremely disappointed" by the court’s decision and promised to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Kim Dotcom
✔ @KimDotcom
My statement about the disappointing judgement by the NZ Court of Appeal
https://issuu.com/statement050718/docs/statement-050718 …
A judgement in complete denial of the legislative history and intention of the Copyright Act. Therefore it has the value of toilet paper. We will now appeal to the Supreme Court.
10:14 PM - Jul 4, 2018
The United States accuses the four of
systematic copyright infringement that cost copyright owners over $500 million in losses.
According to the ruling, the site experienced enormous growth since 2008, generating over $175 million in revenues, and at one point accounted for four percent of global internet traffic, offering content to some 50 million users daily. It was eventually shut down in 2012.
The United States has been seeking the extradition of Dotcom and his executives since 2012 on 13 charges, including fraud and copyright infringement. The latter is not considered a crime worthy of extradition in New Zealand, even though US authorities claim copyright owners lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to Megaupload's illegal activities. Dotcom is likely to face a 20-year prison sentence in the US over the piracy charges.