Entrepreneur and voluntary floatation device Kim Dotcom has lost his latest appeal to reclaim his property and assets at the US Supreme Court.
Dotcom was found eligible for extradition by New Zealand courts in February, but has continued to fight the charges. At the heart is whether or not Dotcom and his associates are “fugitives”. US courts believe that yes, he is.
His fugitive status and poor health preventing him were cited as reasons why he has not faced charges in the US, but were deemed not valid reasons to return the $42m seized in 2012 after the closure of his site Megaupload, which had been seen as a hub for pirated material and not enough was being done to solve the issue.
Kim Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato, are wanted for trial in the US on 13 counts, including counts of copyright, conspiracy to commit racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud.
A cheap and nasty rag we don’t link to claimed earlier this month that Kim had cut a deal that would see him testify in order to get his stuff back which the US Department of Justice (DoJ) claims were obtained through money laundering, as well as breach of copyright.
The news will come as a massive dent in the overall case which is being fought in multiple courts and multiple countries and as such is costing a fortune. To continue to fight requires money, and Dotcom has just had it reaffirmed that he has none.
Dotcom has vowed to fight on, despite the DoJ’s affirmation that he is deliberately avoiding coming to the US to avoid prosecution.
After Megaupload collapsed, Kim Dotcom launched a similar service, simply called Mega, with a focus on encryption, but later distanced himself from the service claiming he no longer trusted it following what he called a “hostile” Chinese takeover.
