American Government Won Lawsuit against Kim Dotcom
https://sp-security.blogspot.com/2015/04/american-government-won-lawsuit-against.html
The
government of the United States is celebrating victory in its civil
forfeiture case against the long defunct cyberlocker MegaUpload and its
founder Kim Dotcom. The US government received Dotcom's bank accounts,
cars, art and other property worth dozens of millions of dollars. Of
course, Dotcom is going to appeal the ruling at a higher court.
Three years ago, the US and New Zealand authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and other property from Kim Dotcom during the raid on MegaUpload, saying that all of it was obtained through copyright and money laundering crimes. Later, the American government started a separate civil action in an attempt to forfeit the bank accounts, cars and other property of Kim Dotcom.
The court recently ordered a default judgment in favor of the American government, which means that the contested assets (worth $67 million) now belong to the United States. It is known that over a dozen Hong Kong and New Zealand bank accounts have now been forfeited, including some of the property purchased through them. Apparently, those accounts processed funds received through MegaUpload’s activities.
In response, MegaUpload founder refuted the claims as “Hollywood nonsense” and insisted that MegaUpload was operating legally. Despite this ruling being a huge blow, it also opens up the possibility to Dotcom to bring the case to a higher court, while all previous rulings were designed in such a way that an appeal was impossible.
It should be noted that the recent court ruling is the first major victory of the United States against MegaUpload thus far. At the same time, Kim Dotcom and his colleagues are still waiting to hear whether they will be sent to the United States to stand trial.
Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.
by:
Three years ago, the US and New Zealand authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and other property from Kim Dotcom during the raid on MegaUpload, saying that all of it was obtained through copyright and money laundering crimes. Later, the American government started a separate civil action in an attempt to forfeit the bank accounts, cars and other property of Kim Dotcom.
The court recently ordered a default judgment in favor of the American government, which means that the contested assets (worth $67 million) now belong to the United States. It is known that over a dozen Hong Kong and New Zealand bank accounts have now been forfeited, including some of the property purchased through them. Apparently, those accounts processed funds received through MegaUpload’s activities.
In response, MegaUpload founder refuted the claims as “Hollywood nonsense” and insisted that MegaUpload was operating legally. Despite this ruling being a huge blow, it also opens up the possibility to Dotcom to bring the case to a higher court, while all previous rulings were designed in such a way that an appeal was impossible.
It should be noted that the recent court ruling is the first major victory of the United States against MegaUpload thus far. At the same time, Kim Dotcom and his colleagues are still waiting to hear whether they will be sent to the United States to stand trial.
Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.
by:
