Fugitive web tycoon Kim Dotcom loses appeal against extradition to US
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom lost an appeal in a New Zealand court against extradition to the US over fraud charges.
Mr Dotcom is one of the founders of Megaupload, a file-sharing site which allowed customers to store files online.
The US is seeking to extradite Mr Dotcom to stand trial on fraud and copyright infringement charges. Mr Dotcom and his cofounders have denied the charges against them.
New Zealand's Court of Appeal upheld the charges against Mr Dotcom and his Megaupload cofounders Mattias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato.
Andrew Little, New Zealand’s justice minister, will now decide whether the extradition to the US will go ahead following a final appeal by Mr Dotcom to New Zealand’s Supreme Court.
I get a lot of sweet and supporting messages today. Your support feels great and even if I can’t reply to everyone please know that I read everything and that I appreciate you very much. Don’t worry about me. I’m strong.https://t.co/UGWsYPBEGp will make you very happy ��
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) July 5, 2018
Mr Dotcom has publicly criticised the court’s interpretation of copyright law. “The precedent set is concerning and has ramifications in New Zealand outside my case,” he said.
New Zealand police raided Mr Dotcom’s mansion in a 2012 raid which was supported by the FBI. Last year, Mr Dotcom reached a settlement agreement with New Zealand police over his claim that unreasonable force was used in the raid.
Mr Dotcom was born in Germany in 1974. He changed his name from Kim Schmitz in 2005, around the time that he founded the online hosting company Megaupload.
US authorities have accused Dotcom and his other founders of enabling large-scale copyright infringement. They say that Megaupload cost rightsholders around $500m and generated more than $175m in revenue before it was shut down in 2012.
Following the closure of Megaupload, Mr Dotcom founded New Zealand political party the Internet Party in 2014. However, the party failed to win any seats in New Zealand’s House of Representatives and shut last month as its membership dropped below the 500-member threshold.
