Tag: Kim Dotcom (page 4)

Authorities in New Zealand goofed. They applied for the seizure/restraining order on Megaupload and KimDotCom's assets under the wrong legal provision. On Friday, New Zealand High Court Justice Judith Potter declared the order null and void, and found it had no legal effect.

The Crown admitted the error about a week after Kim Dotcom and Megaupload's assets were seized, and on January 30, submitted a revised version under the correct portion of the statute, which the court granted on a temporary basis. Kim DotCom filed a motion attacking the order during the first week in February.

While Justice Potter has now ruled the first order was invalid, she has yet to rule on whether whether the new seizure order can legally cover assets seized under the old, invalid order. If she rules it cannot, she may order Kim Dotcom and the other defendants' property returned to them. [More...]

The U.S. filed its extradition request for Kim Dotcom and the other MegaUpload defendants on Friday in the North Shore District Court in Auckland. The deadline was March 5.

The court is not releasing the documents at this time. The hearing is August 20.

If you missed last week's TV3 News interview with Kim Dotcom in which he quite articulately explains why he's committed no crime (summary here), you can still view it online here.

Update (3/1): The written decision rejecting the Crown's bail appeal for Kim DotCom has been released. You can read it here. (Update: This video link seems to be working.)

MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom gave an in depth interview yesterday to TV3 News in New Zealand. I couldn't get the video to play, but the station posted the transcript.

What's remarkable about reading the transcript is that it feels like you are hearing him speak. That's how passionate Kim Dotcom is about his innocence. He explains MegaUpload and copyright laws a lot better than the Government does in its Indictment. And he answers each question directly -- there are no attempts to deflect the interviewer by answering the question he thinks should have been asked instead of the one actually put to him. He really seems to have nothing to hide. In a nutshell: [More...]

Update (3/1): The written decision rejecting the Crown's bail appeal for Kim DotCom has been released. You can read it here.

The Crown, representing the U.S., has lost its appeal to reverse MegaUpload co-founder Kim DotCom's release on bail. I just received confirmation from The High Court's media department via e-mail: "I am able to advise that Kim Dotcom's bail appeal has been dismissed." A copy of the decision should be available soon. When I receive it, I'll post it.

9:00 pm MT: First on Twitter, the New Zealand Business Review: Kim Dot Com Stays Free. NZBR said it was standing room only in the High Court. [More...]

It's a big day for Kim DotCom of MegaUpload. At 4:30 pm New Zealand time (1 hour from now) High Court Justice Tim Brewster will issue his decision on the Crown's appeal of Kim DotCom's release on bail. Hopefully, Kim DotCom won't be returning to jail.

A hearing has been going on all day in another division of the High Court on Kim DotCom and his wife Mona's request to unfreeze assets for living expenses. They say their living expenses are $220,000. a month. The Crown Prosecutor, Ann Toohey, who is representing the U.S., objected to the expenditures as excessive.

DotCom is requesting 28,000 a month for legal and living expenses. The amount of $200,000 is for rent at the mansion. Kim DotCom put $6.5 million into renovations at the property, which he will lose if he can't pay the rent.

Toohey also said she was informed yesterday by the FBI that U.S. prosecutors are investigating Mona DotCom and have made some sort of application: [More...]

After hearing arguments in New Zealand's High Court today on whether to grant the Crown's appeal of the decision granting bail to MegaUpload co-founder Kim DotCom, the Court reserved ruling until 4:30 p.m. tomorrow.

It doesn't sound like the Prosecution had anything more to offer than last week:

The Crown, on behalf of the US Government, argued today that there is a very real risk that Dotcom still has access to offshore funds he is linked with.

But Dotcom's lawyer Paul Davison QC says there is no evidence of this, so his client's flight risk remains low. He said it would make no sense for Dotcom to leave his family or assets behind.

I hope the Judge doesn't reverse the granting of bail. With the extradition hearing not until August, the Crown should have to show more than unsupported speculation he has sources of funds and would likely flee. So far it hasn't.

It's back to the High Court for MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom. The Crown has appealed the order granting him bond, and a hearing has been set for Tuesday.

The Crown Prosecution is not representing the people of New Zealand in this case, it is representing the United States. In other words, the Crown probably couldn't care less that Kim DotCom is on bail, it's just doing what the FBI has requested.

The U.S. has until March 5 to file its extradition request.

Many thanks to the New Zealand Ministry of Justice. I sent an email this morning to their media department asking for a copy of the Kim DotCom bail decision, and they cheerfully obliged. Now that's how to run a government agency!

Here is the decision. (I'm about to go read it to see what I missed here.)

Megaupload founder Kim DotCom has been released on bail in New Zealand. (Post-release interview here.) He left jail in a waiting Toyota.

Judge Nevin Dawson said at the North Shore District Court that officials had investigated Dotcom's potential access to funds and "none of significance" had been found. Judge Dawson said it was "highly unlikely" that he had other financial resources available to him that had not already been seized.

The prosecution's argument: He's rich, he must have money somewhere. The Judge disagreed: [More...]

In its February newsletter, the New Zealand Police again attempt to justify the raid on the Kim DotCom mansion and takedown of MegaUpload for the FBI. They say the raid was the culmination of several months of planning.

An OFCANZ (Organised & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand)team of five picked up the case last September and worked intently to meet their goal of a mid-January termination... Termination phases were simultaneously carried out in nine countries: New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States.

...Detective Superintendent Mike Pannett, New Zealand Police Liaison Officer in Washington, monitored termination activities around the world from the FBI’s Multi Agency Command Centre.

[More...]

What do prosecutors do when they realize they've charged a crime they can't prove? Come up with a new charge.

Wayne Tempero, Chief Security Officer for Kim DotCom, was charged with illegal possession of a firearm after the raid on Kim DotCom's compound. The prosecutors said the gun was unlicensed. Tempero has insisted he had a license for the shotgun, as well as for another firearm found on the premises.

Tempero appeared in court today on the unlawful possession of firearms charge and prosecutors dismissed it. But they proceeded to file two new charges, each charging possession of a firearm for unlawful purposes.

When they want you, if they can't get you one way, they just try another. [More...]

Sledgehammers, motorized saws, assault weapons and more were used in the raid of MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom's compound. TV 3 in New Zealand has new details of the raid in an interview with a police official who attempts to justify the excessive force.

Seventy-six police officers, many armed with automatic weapons and pistols, including members of the elite Special Tactics Group, arrived at Kim Dotcom’s Coatesville property on January 20, to arrest him on charges relating to copyright offences.

In a related new article, Kim DotCom's security chief, Wayne Tempero, who took TV3 on a tour of the mansion, says:[More..]