Kim Dotcom seems to have definitely lost the game. After 13 years of legal battle, the creator of Megaupload saw his last request aimed at preventing his expulsion from the United States to be rejected, says Associated Press. His real name Kim Schmitz, the computer scientist and entrepreneur, is accused of having generated around $ 175 million in illegal profits with Megaupload, a site for sharing files that was closed in January 2012 after US justice confiscated the domain and that a muscular raid led to the arrest of its leaders in New Zealand. A long legal fight had begun to avoid that Kim Dotcom and its associates were extradited to the United States.
He had asked the New Zealand court to examine the legality of a decision made in August 2024 to deliver it to the United States to be tried for copyright, money laundering and extortion. But Judge Christine Grace did not establish in her favor, rejecting the argument that the decision to expel him was motivated by political considerations and that he would undergo a manifestly unprotected treatment in the United States.
The same decision on the argument that the New Zealand police was wrong to enchant its partners, but not him, according to national law. A situation that led them to lighter sanctions for them than if they had been tried in the United States.
Potential dispute
The Kim Dotcom/Megaupload issue began in January 2012, when a search was carried out, at the request of the FBI, in its mansion in Auckland, where it was in the company of other managers of its business. According to US prosecutors, Megaupload, at that time, had obtained at least $ 175 million, mainly from people who use the site to illegally download songs, television programs or even movies.
Therefore, they accuse the computer scientist and the other people arrested of being the architects of a vast criminal company, which caused more than half a billion losses to the beneficiaries of musical works, movies and other pirate products. His lawyers have rejected users’ fault, who have chosen to hack content.
In a free guarantee since February 2012, Kim Dotcom has been looking to avoid extradition for years. In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that it could be extradited, together with two of its purposes, a decision that returned to the Minister of Justice, in VERTU of the New Zealand Law. The latter signed an extradition order in August 2024, which the businessman tried to have canceled, without success.
Judge Christine Grace’s decision could be challenged before the Court of Appeals, the deadline to file complaints established for October 8. At the moment, it is unknown if Kim Dotcom intends to do so, but one of his lawyers said on Radio New Zealand that his team “still had a lot of energy to fight to get a fair result.” Meanwhile, the New Zealand government has not revealed the next steps in the extradition process.
Source: BFM TV
