Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom says he is broke, legally defenseless and facing jail time.
The news comes nearly three years after he was arrested in New Zealand for copyright infringement. Not only is Dotcom broke, but his lawyers have recently stepped down, leaving Dotcom, a German native, to represent himself at a hearing this week.
"My legal team has recently resigned because I ran out of money after spending $10 million to try to defend myself," said Dotcom on Tuesday. "They [U.S. authorities] have certainly managed to drain my resources and dehydrate me, and without lawyers I'm defenseless."
Dotcom denies the charges, including conspiring to commit money laundering and copyright infringement at his seized file-sharing site where visitors could upload files too large for email. Despite his New Zealand lawyers having stepped down, Dotcom does have a lawyer in the U.S. who recently spoke to Radio New Zealand about his client.
"There are assets frozen across the globe. There are mechanisms in place for getting relief from those frozen assets," said Ira Rothken, Dotcom's U.S. lawyer. "We're hopeful that courts across the globe, including in Hong Kong and New Zealand, will do the right thing and release funds to counsel. This is the largest copyright case in the history of the United States and New Zealand. The government is trying to outspend Kim Dotcom. They are trying to win on procedure rather than merit."
Dotcom launched another online storage company, Mega, in 2013, and was valued at around $164 million in March. Currently he says he does not own a direct stake in the company and is no longer one of its directors. His wife, from whom he is separated, owns 16.2 percent of the company's shares.
Dotcom also revealed his rent is prepaid until mid-2015 and that he plans to return to court in the near future to unfreeze his assets. The next hearing is not scheduled until February 2015, giving Dotcom a chance to hire more local lawyers if he can find the money.
"Not having legal representation should not prevent an individual from challenging extradition proceedings if he or she has good grounds to do so," said Neil Smyth, a partner at law firm Taylor Wessing. "However, the process is such that having advisers that are experts on not only the law, but also the procedure and the tactics, undoubtedly gives that individual a greater advantage in fighting extradition."
Dotcom, however, will likely have trouble finding the money to hire more lawyers, especially after his surprise rap album, released in 2012, flopped.
