New Zealand’s highest court on Tuesday dismissed Kim Dotcom’s last resort against his extradition to the United States, where the founder of Megaupload.com is accused of industrial-scale piracy.
Wellington’s Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the German national and two of his co-defendants, brushing aside their argument that they faced a miscarriage of justice.
“We do not believe that the Court should do anything more with regard to the proposed appeals, given our conclusion that there was no miscarriage of justice,” concluded a panel of three judges .
The German giant suspected of embezzling millions of dollars with its iconic online download platform is accused in the United States of fraud, racketeering and money laundering, and its founder faces up to 20 years in prison.
It was the last resort of internet mogul, real name Kim Schmitz, nearly ten years after a spectacular New Zealand police raid at the behest of the FBI in the Dotcom Mansion, his sumptuous property in Auckland, in January 2012.
During the long battle that followed, New Zealand justice rendered unfavorable judgments against the German and his three co-defendants, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato against whom the charges were dropped.
The 47-year-old reacted with indifference on social media to his latest legal setback.
“Not impressed,” he tweeted.
Kim Dotcom and his co-defendants are suspected of making $ 175 million in illegal profits from their activities and causing more than half a billion dollars in losses to rights holders of musical works, films and other pirated products.
Megaupload was closed by American justice.
The accused defend themselves from any offense. Kim Dotcom says the lawsuits were orchestrated by the administration of former President Barack Obama to please the powerful in Hollywood.
Megaupload was one of the first examples of cloud computing, where users could upload files stored on servers making them readily available for download.
At the height of its activity, in 2011, Megaupload claimed 50 million daily users, and 4% of global internet traffic.