A New Zealand district court has decreed that German national Kim Dotcom, the founder of defunct file hosting service Megaupload, can be extradited to the U.S. to face charges.
On Tuesday, Dec. 22, the district judge upheld the U.S.' appeal and ruled that Dotcom along with his three associates, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, can be extradited to the country to face prosecution. The decision comes as the U.S. satisfied the necessary requirements for a legitimate case.
Judge Nevin Dawson said that an "overwhelming" quantity of evidence against the defendants have been accumulated by the U.S. He added that the defendants fell "well short of undermining the case."
The current ruling comes four years after the Megaupload founder was indicted and the extradition proceedings were launched.
Dotcom and the three other defendants are charged with copyright infringement, money laundering and conspiring to commit money laundering and racketeering willfully. The charges were filed in the U.S., which prompted the request for extradition.
According to the lawsuit, the four were aware that Megaupload was being used to distribute and reproduce copyrighted materials. However, they did not make any attempts to thwart the practice by either deleting the files or removing access to the same. The case alleges that the group generated $175 million via these unlawful practices.
Earlier in September, we reported that Dotcom had appeared before a court in New Zealand for a preliminary hearing pertaining to the extradition appeal made by the U.S. Department of Justice.
