Kim Dotcom has has been battling extradition attempts since 2012 after the FBI raided his Auckland mansion. Now, the tech founder is set to be deported from New Zealand to the United States on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.
According to US authorities, Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500m (£388m) by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material.
The erstwhile website earned more than $175m (£136m) in revenue using these means.
Dotcom appears to plan to fight the extradition charges, sharing a headline about his case on X with the caption: “Oops, don't worry, I have a plan."
This was followed by a post reading, “I love New Zealand, I’m not leaving.”
I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving 😘
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) August 15, 2024
Here’s what you need to know about Kim Dotcom and what might happen next.
Who is Kim Dotcom?
Born Kim Schmitz, the German-born tech founder has a New Zealand residency.
He first became known in the 1990s as a hacker and an online entrepreneur, before being arrested in 1994 for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers.
At that time, Dotcom was convicted on eleven charges of computer fraud, ten charges of data espionage and various other charges in 1998 for which he served a two-year suspended sentence.
He founded Megaupload in 2005 and it ran as a file-sharing website until 2012. After his arrest in 2012 following an FBI raid, Dotcom posted bail and began legal proceedings that would prevent his extradition to the US.
What was Megaupload?
Megaupload was a Hong Kong-based online company that provided online services related to file storage and viewing.
The United States Department of Justice seized the domain names and closed down all sites associated with Megaupload on January 19, 2012.
The owners, including Dotcom, were arrested and indicted on charges related to copyright infringement.
In 2013, Dotcom launched another cloud storage service called Mega, which ran for two years first under the domain name mega.co.nz, then mega.nz, and then to mega.io.
What could happen next?
The battle to get Dotcom extradited has been going on for years, with a New Zealand court ruling in 2017 that Dotcom could be extradited to the US on fraud charges related to Megaupload.
Dotcom continued to deny any wrongdoing and went on to accuse US authorities of pursuing an alleged vendetta against him.
The ruling has now been upheld twice, first in 2018 by the New Zealand Court of Appeal and again in 2020 by the Supreme Court of New Zealand.
After unsuccessfully challenging the decision through judicial review, Dotcom’s extradition order was eventually signed on 15 August 2024.
Dotcom appears to be determined to continue the fight to not get extradited, as echoed by one of his legal advisers, Ira Rothken.
The adviser updated on social media that the team was working on a judicial review of the extradition order, writing that “the fight for justice continues” in a post on X.
