Kim Dotcom Denied Extradition Appeal

Former internet mogul Kim Dotcom, previously Kim Schmitz, will be eligible for extradition to the United States (U.S.) according to the New Zealand (NZ) Court of Appeal.

The founder of Megaupload, and his three co-accused, were denied their appeal to be sent back the U.S. today. The court stated that evidence from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation sufficiently supported allegations of copyright breach, on an immense scale, for commercial gain.

Ira Rothken, Dotcom’s lawyer, says Dotcom will now appeal to the Supreme Court.

Megaupload was created in 2005 as a storage and sharing platform for massive amounts of data. While some users utilized the site to store photographs, projects and work files, there was significant evidence of illegal content being trafficked. U.S. officials claim that Megaupload amassed over $175 million in pirated content including films and music.

Back in 2012, a heavily armed force of NZ police officers and U.S. agents raided Dotcom’s family home (in NZ) and seized 18 luxury cars, roughly NZ $11 million and 150 terabytes of data. In 2017 Dotcom and his wife settled an undisclosed sum with the NZ police for, what they considered, an excessive use of force during the raid.

Dotcom could recieve a sentence of up to 20 years in jail for racketeering, fraud and money laundering if he is forced to face the charges in the U.S.