Kim Dotcom, the founder of the once-popular file-sharing website Megaupload, lost his 12-year battle against extradition from New Zealand to the U.S. After the ruling, Dotcom compared his situation to former President Donald Trump. Dotcom said Trump and he share a common experience of persecution by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Joe Biden.
What Happened: Dotcom is facing charges in the U.S. for copyright infringement, money laundering, and racketeering. The announcement of his surrender to the U.S. for trial was made on Friday by New Zealand’s Justice Minister, Paul Goldsmith. This marks a significant milestone in this long-standing legal battle. However, the date for the extradition has not been set yet, AP News reported on Friday.
Despite this setback, Dotcom remains defiant. His legal team is preparing for a judicial review, where a New Zealand judge will evaluate Goldsmith’s decision.
In a post on X on Friday, Dotcom alleged that the DOJ has been unjustly targeting him and Trump.
“Trump and I have one thing in common: We have both been persecuted by Joe Biden's corrupt DOJ puppets. In my case Biden appointed his personal lawyer as a DOJ prosecutor to bring a novel criminal copyright case against me for his Hollywood donors,” he wrote while attaching the white paper of the case.
Benzinga could not independently verify Dotcom’s claims about the lawyers Ira Rothken and Robert Amsterdam.
The White House did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.
Why It Matters: Dotcom, the founder of the now-defunct file-sharing site Megaupload, has been embroiled in a lengthy legal battle over copyright infringement allegations.
The Finnish-German millionaire and his legal team have argued that it was the users of the site, not its founders, who chose to pirate material. However, prosecutors have painted a different picture, describing the men as the architects of a vast criminal enterprise. The Department of Justice has called it the largest criminal copyright case in U.S. history.
Two of Dotcom’s former business partners, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, pleaded guilty to charges against them in a New Zealand court in June 2023 and were sentenced to two and a half years in jail. In exchange, U.S. efforts to extradite them were dropped.
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Image by William Stadtwald Demchick via Wikimedia Commons
This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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