Topline
New Zealand on Thursday approved the extradition of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom to the U.S., following more than a decade of legal disputes after the file-sharing site’s founders were arrested on money laundering and copyright infringement charges.
A grand jury indicted Megaupload’s founders on money laundering and copyright infringement charges, … [+]
Key Facts
New Zealand Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said Thursday he signed an extradition order for Dotcom, whose birth name is Kim Schmitz, saying in a statement to the New Zealand Herald he “received extensive advice” from government officials.
Dotcom, 50, was arrested and charged in 2012 with engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of criminal copyright infringement.
The Justice Department alleges Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million by knowingly allowing users to upload copyrighted material to the site, a practice prosecutors claim generated more than $175 million in revenue.
Dotcom appeared to reference the extradition order earlier this week in a post on X, writing the “obedient U.S. colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload,” suggesting in a separate post Thursday he is “not leaving” New Zealand.
Dotcom argued he had no control over what was uploaded by users to Megaupload, claiming copyright holders “were able to remove with direct delete access instantly and without question.”
Goldsmith said he gave Dotcom “a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision.”
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Big Number
55 years. That’s the maximum prison sentence Dotcom faces if convicted on all counts, according to the Justice Department.
Key Background
Dotcom, a German citizen, moved to New Zealand in 2010 after founding Megaupload with Mathias Ortmann in Hong Kong in 2005. New Zealand officials raided Dotcom’s home in Auckland in 2012 following a request from the FBI, who shut down Megaupload after Dotcom’s arrest. Megaupload was relaunched as a new company, Mega, under a New Zealand domain name in 2013, though Dotcom has reportedly had no involvement with the site since at least 2015. Dotcom has denied all wrongdoing and appealed a ruling by a New Zealand judge in 2017 to extradite him to the U.S., though his appeal was denied a year later. In 2020, New Zealand’s Supreme Court reaffirmed Dotcom’s extradition order, but allowed for a new round of judicial review before it became official. Megaupload programmer Andrus Nomm pleaded guilty to a copyright infringement charge in 2015 and was sentenced to one year and one day in U.S. prison. Ortmann and Bram van Der Kolk, who oversaw Megaupload’s programming, reached a plea agreement with the U.S. in 2022 to instead face charges in New Zealand instead of being extradited. That same year, the U.S. dropped an extradition request for Finn Batato, Megaupload’s chief marketing officer.
