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MegaUpload founder gets to keep his assets… for now

Internet entrepreneur and MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom has won a rather important case in New Zealand that effectively denies the US government’s attempts to seize his NZ-based assets, which are valued in the millions of dollars (that would be US dollars).

The ruling effectively disagrees with the US’s assertion that it has the right to seize his assets under the American legal theory of the “doctrine of fugitive disentitlement”, a theory that maintains the US government can take whatever it wants from him because they view Dotcom as a fugitive from the law.

However, Ars Technica writes that New Zealand law does not recognise the concept, which, in conjunction with Dotcom’s lawyers’ assertion that he cannot be considered a fugitive as he has never been to the US, has led to a New Zealand judge throwing out the US government’s case.

Dotcom, whose name was originally Kim Schmitz before he changed it in 2005, has been embroiled in various legal battles since his arrest in 2012 for “criminal charges of copyright infringement, racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering” that he attracted for his operation of MegaUpload.com.

MegaUpload was a popular file-sharing site that attracted a reputation for facilitating online piracy and other criminal online activities; it was shut down by the FBI in 2012 and re-opened a year later under the name Mega.co.nz.

This isn’t the end of the line for the US government, however, as the ruling will likely be appealed in the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, and later in the country’s Supreme Court should that not prove successful.

Until the US government succeeds, Kim Dotcom can continue enjoying his cars, jetskis, mansions, 180-inch TVs and millions in the bank.

[Source – Ars Technica, Image – CC-by-2.0]

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