Kim Dotcom Extradition Begins In New Zealand Court

Kim Dotcom, the charismatic founder of Megaupload, is back in court in Auckland, New Zealand, as he fights extradition to the United States.

Dotcom is wanted by US authorities for copyright infringement and money laundering, and the extradition hearing this week is the result of years of legal manoeuvres by both parties.

Long Fight

Kim Dotcom is a unquestionably a colourful character, but the German is being pursued by the US because of his cloud storage service Megaupload.

The US alleges that this website cost Hollywood film studios and record companies more than $500m (£322m), and generated $175m (£113m) by allowing users to store and share copyright material.

Dotcom was arrested by New Zealand police in early 2012 on orders from the US, and his mansion was raided. But Dotcom has repeatedly won subsequent legal tussles that have prevented his extradition to the United States.

In September 2012, Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, apologised to Dotcom for unlawfully spying on him. New Zealand law prohibits spying on citizens or those who, like Dotcom, have a residence class visa.

And in June 2012, a New Zealand High Court declared the search warrants used in the raid on Dotcom’s mansion were “invalid”. In May 2013, Dotcom regained access to evidence seized during those raids.

Extradition Hearing

But the United States is a persistent foe and Dotcom’s extradition hearing has finally begun in Auckland, New Zealand. The United States has to prove that a crime was committed in both countries before he can be extradited.

According to the BBC, the colourful Dotcom brought his own chair to the hearing, citing “ergonomic reasons”.

The hearing is expected to last a number of weeks.

“This case is not just about me. This case is about how much control we allow US corporations and the US government to have over the Internet,” Dotcom said on Twitter before proceedings began.

Dotcom has previously questioned the privacy of people’s data using any of these American services ever since the revelations from Edward Snowden that US-based companies had to hand over data to intelligence agencies such as the NSA upon request.

Well-wishers flooded his Twitter account with good luck messages.

“It’s totally uplifting to get so many good luck wishes from all over the Internet. One for all and all for one,” Dotcom tweeted.

“I never lived there. I never travelled there. I had no company there. But all I worked for now belongs to the US,” he also tweeted.

Can you protect your privacy online? Take our quiz!

Tom Jowitt

Tom Jowitt is a leading British tech freelancer and long standing contributor to Silicon UK. He is also a bit of a Lord of the Rings nut...

View Comments

  • A pity the US authorities don't put in as much effort in chasing down malware purveyors, child pornographers etc. But guess that's not costing mega corporations profit?

Recent Posts

Google Jarvis AI Extension Leaked On Chrome Store

Seemingly accidental leak reveals Google is developing Jarvis AI extension that can browse the web…

1 day ago

Amazon Mulls New Multi-Billion Dollar Investment In Anthropic – Report

Amazon is reportedly in talks to pump billions of dollars more into AI start-up Anthropic,…

1 day ago

FTX’s Caroline Ellison Begins Her Two Year Prison Sentence

Star witness for the US prosecution of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has begun her two…

1 day ago

More Layoffs For iRobot Staff After Abandoned Amazon Deal

After axing 31 percent of its workforce when it failed to be acquired by Amazon,…

2 days ago

Mozilla Foundation Confirms Layoffs, Eliminates Advocacy Division

Mozilla Foundation axes 30 percent of its staff, and is eliminating its Advocacy Division that…

2 days ago

Google To Make MFA Mandatory Next Year

Improving security. Mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA) is coming to the Google Cloud by the end…

2 days ago