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US formally requests Dotcom's extradition

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US formally requests Dotcom's extradition

3News NZ

Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom

By 3 News online staff

The US has formally requested the extradition of alleged internet pirate king Kim Dotcom, a lawyer representing the US says.

Dotcom, 38, and currently on bail, was arrested at the Coatesville mansion his family rents on January 20.

He faces charges of racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering in relation to his website, Megaupload, and other sites under the 'Mega' banner, like Megavideo.

The lawyer representing the US government, Anne Toohey, said that extradition papers had been lodged at North Shore District Court in Auckland on Friday.

Dotcom won't know whether he will be extradited to the US until August, when a three-week hearing will be heard.

Dotcom has denied doing anything wrong. Last week he told Campbell Live his arrest was "like a nightmare".

"I am a fighter and I am going to fight this thing," he said.

"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."

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Comments

6/03/2012 6:43:02 p.m.

Chargone wrote:

note that apparently Actually Paying his Creditors (such as the people who provide the physical machines the sites were stored on) rates as money laundering to these people. the rest of the charge sheet is apparently very similar, and the one thing they Could get him on (copyright infringement) is actually a civil matter, not a criminal one, AND according to US law his company isn't liable for it Anyway... note how they conveniently set things up so that all evidence one way or another on This charge has been Destroyed? (website got taken down, assets got frozen, hosting company was not payed, US government agencies had a look at the contents of the site (that is, a tiny fraction of the hugely large site, cherry picking the stuff they Know will help them) then the hosting company's time limit ran/runs out , they've still not been payed, so they delete the data. so the only data still to be found has been in the hands of obviously bias agents of a vindictive prosecution/plaintiff. THAT's going to make for a fair trial <_< that said, last i checked the guy was a resident, not a citizen. important technical difference (though my info may be outdated.)

6/03/2012 9:24:36 a.m.

Anonymous wrote:

@Heh the current CEO of the MPAA is also a former US senator and despite supporting evidence and public demand for the MPAA to be investigated for bribery no such investigation has taken place. The papers being filed doesn't actually change much however it just lets them set a date for the hearing in August when the US will have to provide actual evidence instead of only the hearsay they have released so far

5/03/2012 6:02:28 p.m.

Heh wrote:

Of course USA will not back off. Some people hoped that US wouldn't file the papers on time, but that was wishful thinking.

MPAA desperately wants this to proceed to court, so they will do anything they can to make it happen. Using US and NZ taxpayers' money, conveniently.

As it usually happens, government people prosecuting things like this will end up working for MPAA or BSA or RIAA after a while. Then, in few years time, they will end up as assistant deputy attorney general (Neil MacBride, who was in BSA) and push to prosecute Megaupload. Or they will work as an senior attorney in FTC (and lead antitrust cases against Google), then they will move to work for Microsoft (Randall Long). There are countless cases like this, and people simply shrug them off with "you are a crazy conspiracy theorist" comments.

Yes, these are conspiracy theories, sure.

Not corruption or cronyism. Nope.

5/03/2012 5:09:35 p.m.

key wrote:

I don't see how Anne Toohey can stand in Court and believe in what she is doing, representing the corrupt FBI to take a NZ citizen away.We used to have balls and stood up to America on our anti nuclear stance.Give the very lucid and clever Kim a chance to prove his innocence before whisking him away to Abu Ghraib, or the FBI equivalent.Back off USA..

5/03/2012 1:34:01 p.m.

Come on FBI wrote:

The US has formally requested?... does that mean that they have issued an arrest warrant? Given the history of this matter I would want to see an arrest warrant implemented by the FBI and nothing less. New Zealand Police should keep out of it. They have already made fools of the police on this matter.