Megaupload.com Owner Kim Dotcom Arrested in newzland ~ Technology Update

Some uninvited guests showed up at Kim Dotcom's mansion outside Auckland, New Zealand, on Friday: The police, in two helicopters.

They had an arrest warrant for Dotcom, 37, who was born Kim Schmitz and is accused by U.S.authorities of criminal copyright infringement through the website Megaupload, which he founded.

Kim dotcom Owner of Megaupload.com

Finding their target was not easy. When Dotcom, who holds Finnish and German citizenship, first saw the police, he ran inside and activated several electronic locks, part of the estate's sophisticated security system. As the police made their way through those, he barricaded himself in a safe room. Officers cut their way through to get him, standing near a firearm that they said looked like a sawed-off shotgun.

"It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door," said Grant Wormald, a detective inspector.

Kim Dotcom's Mansion in newzland

In what the American authorities have called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the FBI shut down Megaupload.com and instigated the arrest of Dotcom and three other people in New Zealand. In all, seven people connected with the site were charged with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.

Police seized millions of pounds, a vast collection of luxury cars and sawn-off shotguns yesterday when they raided the mansion of a man accused of being one of the world’s biggest internet pirates.

Dotcom, 37 – nicknamed Dr Evil – has Finnish and German citizenship. He and six of his employees face charges by U.S.prosecutors in what they say is one of the biggest criminal copyright theft cases ever brought.

Kim dotcom and his workers are arrested

MegaUpload, which the U.S. government shut down yesterday, is a Hong Kong-based ‘cyberlocker’ service that allows users to download pirated films, TV shows, music and e-books with just a few clicks.

It is accused of costing copyright owners £322million in lost earnings and of making £113million by selling advertising and premium subscriptions.

A neighbour of Dotcom's told the New Zealand Herald she heard a helicopter circling the property at about 6.30am.

'I thought it was his private helicopter, which is parked up behind the trees, and I thought he was going out for breakfast, as he sometimes does,' said the neighbour, whose name was not given.

'I thought "this is going on a bit long" and it was a bit annoying at that time of the morning and so I got up and realised it was a police helicopter.

'It was there for about an hour and then my friend texted me that a lot of cops had arrived.'
Police said that in total officers served 10 search warrants at businesses and homes related to Dotcom around the city of Auckland.

The arrests come in the middle of a controversy over congressional efforts in the United Statesto curtail Internet piracy.

Megaupload, a so-called locker service, allows users to transfer large files like movies and music anonymously over the Internet, and media companies have long complained that some files are being transferred in violation of copyright law.

A grand jury indictment says seven people in all were part of a criminal conspiracy involving Megaupload, charging each with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy. The possible penalty is 20 years in prison. The indictment says Megaupload caused $500 million in damages to copyright owners and made $175 million by selling ads and premium subscriptions.

Megaupload's lawyer has said that "the government is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law."

The police in New Zealand said they were continuing to search the Aucklandproperty. In all, about 20 search warrants connected to the case were executed in the United States and in eight other countries, including New Zealand.

About $50 million in assets were also seized, as well as a number of servers and 18 domain names that formed Megaupload's network of file-sharing sites. The police said they seized $4.8 million in luxury vehicles; include a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé and a pink 1959 Cadillac. They also seized art and electronic equipment and froze $11 million in cash in various accounts.

Kim dotcom enjoying with unknown women

The arrest of Dotcom, the central figure in the case, was not his first encounter with the law.

In February 2001, Dotcom told Die Welt that he had spent three months in a Munich jail in 1994 and had served two years' probation for breaking into Pentagon computers and observing real-time satellite photos of Saddam Hussein's palaces during the Persian Gulf war of 1991. In the mid-1990s, Dotcom received a suspended two-year sentence for a swindle that made use of stolen phone card numbers.

In 2001, Dotcom was accused in what was then the largest insider-trading case in German history. Prosecutors in Munichsaid he bought shares in a struggling business, letsbuyit.com, and then announced that he planned to make a major investment in the company and rescue it from insolvency.

Dotcom reportedly made more than $1 million when the shares soared.

Dotcom eventually fled Germany to escape those charges but was captured in Thailand, extradited and convicted in 2002. He spent five months in jail awaiting trial but received a suspended sentence on the underlying charges.

Dotcom dropped from view until last year, when German newspapers started reporting rumors of his luxury compound in New Zealand.

Dotcom and the three others who were arrested in New Zealand appeared in court Friday afternoon and were denied bail. Extradition proceedings will continue Monday.