Kim Dotcom, who’s going through prison fees regarding the defunct file-sharing web site Megaupload, will probably be extradited to the US from New Zealand, the New Zealand justice minister mentioned on Thursday.
German-born Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, has been preventing extradition to the US since 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.
Justice minister Paul Goldsmith signed an extradition order for Dotcom, a spokesman for the minister of justice mentioned.
“I thought of the entire data rigorously, and have determined that Mr Dotcom needs to be surrendered to the US to face trial,” Goldsmith mentioned in a press release.
“As is widespread observe, I’ve allowed Mr Dotcom a brief time frame to think about and take recommendation on my choice. I can’t, due to this fact, be commenting additional at this stage.”
In a put up on social media web site X on Tuesday, Dotcom mentioned: “The obedient US colony within the South Pacific simply determined to extradite me for what customers uploaded to Megaupload.”
US authorities say Dotcom and three different Megaupload executives value movie studios and report firms greater than US$500-million by encouraging paying customers to retailer and share copyrighted materials, which generated greater than $175-million in income for the web site.
Arrested
The corporate’s chief advertising and marketing officer, Finn Batato, and chief technical officer and co-founder, Mathias Ortmann, each from Germany, together with a 3rd govt Dutch nationwide Bram van der Kolk had been arrested with Dotcom in 2012.
Ortmann and Van der Kolk entered plea offers that noticed them sentenced in 2023 to jail phrases in New Zealand however allowed them to keep away from extradition. Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand. — Lewis Jackson and Lucy Craymer, (c) 2024 Reuters
