• Full Story

Megaupload founder has birthday in jail

Email
Print

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 7:31a.m.

Founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, turned 38 on Saturday, but celebrated in prison

Founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, turned 38 on Saturday, but celebrated in prison

The website founder at the centre of an FBI-led investigation into online piracy has spent his birthday in jail.

Founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, turned 38 on Saturday, but celebrated in prison, instead of at the rented Auckland mansion where he lived.

He and three other men arrested on Friday are due to appear in court on Monday.

Police say Dotcom had an extravagant birthday party planned, which was why they knew it was a good time to make their move because his associates had flown in for the party, TVNZ reported.

Dotcom barricaded himself in a saferoom, with a firearm, when police raided the Coatesville mansion on Friday.

Dotcom barricaded himself in mansion

The four arrested men appeared in North Shore District Court on Friday, where Dotcom said he had nothing to hide.

They are among seven charged in a global sting on the internet upload site www.megaupload.com, which Dotcom founded. The FBI are working to extradite them to the US.

Megaupload has been taken offline and the company is looking into options to get back online.

The accused are Dotcom, a German national with New Zealand residency, Megaupload's chief marketing officer Finn Batato, 38, chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40, both from Germany, and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who is also a New Zealand resident.

Political questions raised over Dotcom's residency

Police seized luxury goods and computer files from the mansion on Friday, which they are examining.

This included two firearms and a 55-year-old New Zealand man has been charged with unlawful possession of a pistol. He was released on bail and is due in court on January 26.

NZN

Become a fan of 3 News on Facebook and on Twitter.

Post a Comment

Before commenting, please take the time to read our moderation guide


(Won't be published)



Comments

22 Jan 2012 06:27p.m.

John wrote:

@ Erm you obviously don't know what's going on it's more than copyright laws. What the American industry want's is absolute control of the web and are using copyright laws as point. They have shut down and hindered legal web sites from operating free material, such as musicians and open source software to the public and content. This is something that you will never hear about by sanitized main stream media that is controlled. New Zealand politicians have sold your citizenship to the States. Have you ever loaned a CD or DVD to anyone, that is also copyright violation, when you buy something ie: CD or DVD you do not own it, even when you replicate it to preserve the original copy is a violation so don't tell you don't violate copyright material or even viewed or listened to copyright material. Everyone at some point has done it.

22 Jan 2012 01:32p.m.

Erm... wrote:

I for one don't care if he spends his next 30 birthdays inside. This is the person that the on-line copyright laws should be aimed at, not Joe Public.