AceBreakingNews – UPDATE – Internet mogul Kim Dotcom, facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, will be extradited to the United States from New Zealand, according to that country’s justice minister.
The German-born Mr Dotcom, who is a self-described “internet freedom fighter”, has been fighting extradition to the US since 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has signed an extradition order for Mr Dotcom, a spokesperson for the minister said on Thursday.
“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial,” Mr Goldsmith said in a statement.
“As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. “ I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage.”
In a post on social media platform X on Tuesday, Mr Dotcom said “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload”, in what appears to be a reference to the extradition order. He followed up the post with one saying “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving 😘”.
Reuters could not immediately contact Mr Dotcom for a response.
US authorities say Mr Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $US500 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material, which generated more than $US175 million in revenue for the website.
A New Zealand court previously ruled in 2015 that Mr Dotcom be extradited to the US to face online piracy charges.
The company’s chief marketing officer Finn Batato and chief technical officer and co-founder, Mathias Ortmann, both from Germany, along with a third executive, Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, were arrested with Mr Dotcom in 2012.
Ortmann and van der Kolk entered plea deals that saw them sentenced in 2023 to jail terms in New Zealand but allowed them to avoid extradition.
Mr Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand.
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