New Zealand to extradite MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom to US

Kim Dotcom, Internet entrepreneur and founder of the website and hosting company Megaupload, will be extradited to the United States. New Zealand’s Justice Minister has signed the extradition order. Report New Zealand Media Thursday. The US Department of Justice suspects him of large-scale copyright infringement, extortion and money laundering.

A website called Megaupload allowed users to share files, which the US says was a massive distribution of illegally downloaded movies and music. Dotcoms made millions from it, while movie studios and record labels lost more than $500 million in revenue, according to US officials. In 2012, special forces raided Dotcom’s villa as part of an international operation against MegaUpload. Dutch leading programmer Bram van der K. was also arrested. Last year, a New Zealand court sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison.

German-Finnish dotcom, born Schmitz, became known as a hacker and Internet entrepreneur in Germany in the 1990s. A long-time resident of New Zealand, she has become a popular journalist with her flamboyant personality. Dotcom supported the founding of the Internet Party in 2013, attracting a lot of media attention, but the party never reached parliament.

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