Kim
Dotcom has been forced to disclose the extent and value of his worldwide assets
to Hollywood film companies who allege he profited from the piracy of movies
through his Megaupload file sharing site.
His extravagant lifestyle together with promises to fund the Internet
political party in New Zealand and further promises to pay a US$5 million
“bounty” to any whistleblower dishing the dirt on US government behaviour and
Hollywood business practices raised suspicions that Mr Dotcom was not complying
with an existing court order which was presumed to have frozen all his assets.
The US government is
seeking to extradite Mr Dotcom who faces criminal prosecution in the United
States for alleged copyright infringement.
As part of those proceedings, assets held in Germany, Hong Kong, the
Netherlands, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand
were frozen with Mr Dotcom permitted to draw down a monthly allowance for living
costs and legal expenses.
Collectively,
Hollywood film studios suspect the Megaupload site earned profits of about
US$175 million. At its peak, the
Megaupload site was the thirteenth most visited site on the internet with an
average of fifty million visits a day. Site visitors who uploaded copyrighted
material received rewards, including payments in cash, calculated by reference
to how often their files were downloaded by others.
A consortium of
Hollywood studios is claiming over $US100 million against Mr Dotcom alleging
copyright infringement. They fear Mr
Dotcom might be running down his assets when they saw him splashing around cash
at a time when they thought all his assets had been frozen. He resisted their court application for a
list of all his assets. In the High
Court, Justice Courtney ruled that disclosure is required. She said the Hollywood studios have a good
arguable case for damages in excess of the $11.8 million dollars in New Zealand
assets currently subject to a freezing order.
The Motion Picture Association of America provided over 190 pages of
evidence summarising a FBI investigation into the operations of Megaupload as
tenable evidence of copyright infringement.
Twentieth
Century Fox v. Dotcom – High Court (30.07.14)
14.032