New Zealand’s justice minister has agreed to extradite Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the file-sharing website Megaupload, to the United States.
German-born Dotcom, whose real name is Kim Schmitz, has been fighting extradition from New Zealand since 2012 in connection with Megaupload, which began operating in 2005 but is now defunct.
He posted a copy of an article announcing the extradition agreement on social media platform X and wrote: “Oops. Don’t worry I have a plan.”
He later wrote, “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving.”
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has now signed an extradition order for Dotcom.
“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial,” Goldsmith said in a statement.
Dotcom Criticizes New Zealand
Earlier this week, Dotcom criticized the New Zealand government in a post on X.In January 2012, the Department of Justice indicted Dotcom, six other individuals, and two companies, Megaupload Limited and Vestor Ltd., for “massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works.”
U.S. authorities say Dotcom and his co-accused generated the money by charging users of the website to store and share copyrighted material that rightfully belonged to film studios and record companies.
Dotcom and several other senior executives at Megaupload moved to New Zealand in 2010.
The company’s co-founder, Mathias Ortmann, and chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, were arrested in 2012, along with Dutch executive Bram van der Kolk.
Ortmann and van der Kolk eventually entered plea deals, which resulted in jail sentences in 2023 in New Zealand but allowed them to avoid extradition.
Batato died in 2022, also in New Zealand.
In 2012, the FBI asked authorities in New Zealand to raid Dotcom’s home in Auckland, New Zealand.
Dotcom’s lawyers have been fighting the extradition process for more than a decade.
It later upheld the lower court’s decision, but nothing happened under the Labour Party government of Jacinta Ardern or her successor, Chris Hipkins.
Luxon Keen to Improve US Relations
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was in Washington in July for the NATO summit and met members of Congress.“While I’m here today, it’s really a big focus on the bilateral relationship with the U.S. and actually deepening and broadening those connections and those relationships,” Luxon said.
It is not clear if Campbell and Luxon discussed the Dotcom case specifically.
In the early 2000s, sites similar to Megaupload—such as Napster and The Pirate Bay—allegedly flouted international copyright law on film, music, and computer games.
Napster was closed down in 2001—although the brand name was later sold, and it relaunched recently as a legitimate subscription-based service—while The Pirate Bay was eventually shut down in 2012.
The Epoch Times has contacted Dotcom for comment but hasn’t received a response.
