Kim Dotcom is being extradited to the United States to face long-standing criminal charges relating to his defunct file-sharing service Megaupload. The order was signed by New Zealand Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith according to Stuff, saying he received “extensive advice from the Ministry of Justice on this matter” and that “Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial.”
As the founder and former CEO of Megaupload, Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz) was accused by US authorities of having cost film studios and record companies over $500 million by enabling users to share pirated content. The German-born Internet mogul moved to New Zealand in 2010, and has been fighting extradition since local police, at the behest of the FBI, raided his Auckland mansion in 2012 over charges of racketeering, money laundering, and copyright infringement. The Department of Justice shut down Megaupload that same year.
Dotcom, who has spent the last several years pushing various conspiracy theories and digital disinformation, responded to the deportation ruling on X, saying “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload, unsolicited.” Two former Megaupload officers, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, were handed 31 and 30-month prison sentences respectively last year after signing a plea deal to avoid extradition.
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