Kim Dotcom is being extradited to the United States to face long-running criminal charges related to his shuttered file-sharing service Megaupload. The order was reportedly signed by New Zealand Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith thingsaying he had “received extensive advice from the Department of Justice on this matter” and that “Mr. Dotcomb should be transferred to the United States to face trial.”
The founder and former CEO of Megaupload, Dotcom (née Kim Schmitz) is accused by U.S. authorities of causing more than $500 million in losses to movie studios and record labels by allowing users to share pirated content. The German-born internet tycoon moved to New Zealand in 2010 and has since raided his Auckland mansion in 2012 at the request of the FBI on charges of racketeering, money laundering and copyright infringement. Since then, he has been fighting extradition. That same year, the Department of Justice shut down Megaupload.
Dotcom, who has been promoting various conspiracy theories and digital disinformation over the past few years, responded to X’s deportation ruling, saying “The obedient American colonies in the South Pacific have just decided to extradite me because of user-initiated content uploaded to Megaupload Last year, two former Megaupload officials, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, were sentenced to 31 and 30 months respectively after signing plea deals to avoid extradition. of imprisonment.
