Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US from New Zealand, court rules

Judge upholds decision against internet entrepreneur and three others, who can now be taken to America to face racketeering and criminal copyright charges

Mr Dotcom gained notoriety in Germany as a teen hacker who received a two-year suspended sentence for selling identities he had siphoned from telephone operators' client database (Reuters)

Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has lost another bid to dodge extradition to America on charges of copyright infringement and money laundering.

New Zealand’s Court of Appeal upheld the decision against Mr Dotcom and three others, who can now be taken to the US.

The charges are linked to Mr Dotcom’s now defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, which permitted millions of people to download digital content.

American authorities claim Mr Dotcom, Mattias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato were involved in a worldwide criminal organisation that lost copyright holders more than an estimated $500m (£378m).

Mr Dotcom – who is from Germany and was originally named Kim Schmitz – and his co-accused have consistently denied the US charges.

The 44-year-old gained notoriety in Germany as a teen hacker who was handed a two-year suspended sentence for selling identities he had siphoned from telephone operators’ client database.

He was given New Zealand residency on an investor visa in 2009 – having previously lived in Hong Kong.

Mr Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, said he would appeal to the Supreme Court, the country’s highest judicial body.

“We will seek review with the NZ Supreme Court,” Mr Rothken wrote on Twitter.

Many see the six-year legal ordeal as a litmus test for the distance the US can reach internationally to implement US firms’ intellectual property rights.

The High Court agreed with the defence they could not be removed from New Zealand on just the alleged copyright infringement because as “online communication of copyright protected works to the public is not a criminal offence in NZ” in an earlier court battle.

But the judge ruled in his 2017 ruling the accused could be extradited on the fraud charges because they constitute as crimes in the Australasian country.

Over the years Mr Dotcom became famed for his extravagant lifestyle rather than just his computer prowess.

He has shared photos of himself with cars and vanity license plates such as “GOD” and “GUILTY” and jet-setting around the world on his private jet.

He also once rented what was said at the time to be New Zealand’s most expensive house.