Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz, 21 January 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur and political activist who resides in Queenstown, New Zealand. He first rose to fame in Germany in the 1990s as an Internet entrepreneur. Dotcom is the founder of the now-defunct file hosting service Megaupload (2005–2012). The company was financially successful, but in 2012 the United States Department of Justice seized its website and pressed charges against Dotcom, including criminal copyright infringement, money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud. Dotcom was residing in New Zealand at the time, and New Zealand authorities arrested him and raided his home. Dotcom posted bail, and is currently going through lengthy legal proceedings and appeals to avoid being extradited to the United States. On 20 February 2017, a New Zealand court ruled that Dotcom, as well as co-accused Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Carter Edwards, could be extradited to the US on fraud charges related to Megaupload. Dotcom denies any wrongdoing and has accused US authorities of pursuing a vendetta against him on behalf of politically influential Hollywood studios. On 5 July 2018, the New Zealand Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's ruling. His lawyer said that he would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.In 2013, Dotcom launched another cloud storage service called Mega, although he later severed all ties with the service in 2015. He also started and funded the Internet Party. The party contested the 2014 New Zealand general election under an electoral alliance with the Mana Movement, and the 2017 general election, but failed to win any seats at either election.