US federal prosecutors have filed a formal request to extradite the Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom from New Zealand.
Three others; Finn Batato, the site’s chief marketing officer, Bram van der Kolk, who oversaw programming, and Mathias Ortmann, Megaupload’s co-founder and director, were also included in the extradition request filed at the North Shore District Court near Auckland.
Prosecutors allege that Dotcom and his colleagues ran a “Mega Conspiracy”, profiting from piracy facilitated through their site to the tune of $175 million (£111m), according to Bloomberg. Additionally, an early indictment claimed that Megaupload’s copyright infringement caused damages of $500m (£320m). The specific charges against the company’s staff include racketeering, fraud, money laundering and copyright infringement among others.
Dotcom was eventually bailed on 22 February after a judge declared that he was not a flight risk, but enforced an internet restriction and required the Megaupload founder to be electronically tagged. In an interview with New Zealand’s Channel 3 News he rejected the criminal claims against him.
“I feel confident I am going to win because at the end of the day I know, my family knows, and everybody around me knows that I am no criminal and I have done nothing wrong,” Dotcom said. “So I will fight it. It’s all I can do.”
The first hearing of the extradition case will be heard on 20 August.
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