MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom to be extradited to US

Kim Dotcom was once a dazzling internet star. Now the German is to be extradited from New Zealand to the US after years of legal wrangling. There, Megaupload has been classified as the biggest copyright infringement case in history.

After a twelve-year legal battle, Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has been extradited from New Zealand to the United States to answer charges related to defunct file-sharing website Megaupload. New Zealand's Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has signed the resolution, Reuters news agency quoted a spokesman for the justice minister as saying.

“I love New Zealand, I won't leave”

“I have carefully reviewed all the information and have determined that Mr. Dotcom should be extradited to the United States for further investigation,” Goldsmith said in a statement. “As usual, I have given Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will therefore not comment further at this time.”

On Tuesday, the dotcom said in a post on social network X: “The submissive American colony in the South Pacific has decided to extradite me for uploading users to Megaupload.” This probably refers to an extradition order. He also wrote that he had a plan. “I love New Zealand. I won't go,” she captioned another post with a kissy smiley.

Kim Dotcom was born Kim Schmitz in Kiel in 1974 and has lived in New Zealand since 2010. The charges against him include former file-sharing website Megaupload. All types of data can be uploaded to the platform and accessed by other users. The company financed it through advertising and paid access to subscribers.

Apparently half a billion dollars in damage

US authorities accuse Dotcom of, among other things, massive copyright infringements, fraud and money laundering. The FBI considers MegaUpload's actions the largest copyright infringement case in US history. Now the 50-year-old and other executives allegedly encouraged paying users to store and share copyrighted material from movie studios and record companies.

According to the US Department of Justice, the site apparently served as an exchange for copyrighted content such as movies, TV series and other files. More than $500 million in damage is reported. The revenue of Megaupload, sometimes one of the most popular websites in the world, exceeds $175 million. Dotcom has always denied the allegations.

The company's marketing director Finn Padato and technical director and co-founder Matthias Ortmann, both from Germany, and a third executive were arrested in 2012. However, Aardman and Dutchman Bram van der Kolk agreed to a trial in New Zealand, thus avoiding extradition. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to more than two years each in 2023. Patado died a year ago.

Expensive yachts, sports cars and luxury properties

Dotcom made a name for himself in the 1990s as a hacker under the pseudonym Kimble, then surrounded himself as an entrepreneur with celebrities such as rappers and models. He offers expensive yachts, sports cars or luxury properties and flaunts his wealth on his YouTube channel. This made him one of the most notable figures on the internet scene. It was only years later that Dotcom was revealed to be the owner of MegaUpload and founded the platform in 2005.

In January 2012, US authorities finally shut down Megaupload and ordered a raid. New Zealand police raided his property in Auckland, freezing his assets and confiscating works of art and several luxury cars. Dotcom was temporarily arrested. Since then, he has legally defended himself against extradition to the United States.

In February 2017, a New Zealand court ruled that Dotcom could be extradited to the United States. Despite confirmations by two other courts, Dotcom successfully defended itself against errors of law before the Supreme Court. Many of the allegations later turned out to be unfounded and the police raid was declared illegal. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key later had to publicly apologize to Germany because he had been illegally wiretapped and his computers monitored.