Two men who helped run the once wildly popular pirating website Megaupload have each been sentenced by a New Zealand court to more than two years in prison. The sentencing of Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk ended an 11-year legal battle by the men to avoid extradition to the United States on more serious charges that included racketeering. The sentencing came after the men struck a deal last year with prosecutors from New Zealand and the U.S. Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, is continuing to fight the U.S. charges and threat of extradition. He has said he expects his former colleagues to testify against him as part of the deal they struck.

U.S. prosecutors say Megaupload raked in at least $175 million — mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies -— before the FBI shut it down in early 2012 and arrested Dotcom and other company officers.

  • cnnrduncan@beehaw.orgEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    The whole megaupload ordeal was one of the first times I remember feeling ashamed of my government’s actions as a teenager. The cops used an illegal warrant to raid his home and illegally sent copies of his hard drives to the American FBI.

    • Briongloid@aussie.zoneEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      It was an abuse of NZ’s power in favour of a foreign government, I’m fine with him being charged thru a civil suit for profiting off piracy, but having the weight of the NZ government back foreign companies in a civil case was absurd.

  • maynarkh@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    2 years ago

    I can’t actually find what these guys were actually guilty of. All media is sharing the same story that they pled guilty to something, and the charges “could have included racketeering if they were extradited to the US”, but they apparently weren’t.

    AFAIK the whole story was that they specifically started Megaupload in NZ because it was not a crime there, yet the FBI raided their place in a foreign country. If I was a Kiwi, I’d be up in arms about it.

    • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nzEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      we were at the time. Note that it has been 11 years and Kin Dotcom still hasn’t been extradited to the us

      • maynarkh@feddit.nlEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        What does NZ charge him or these guys with? I mean if they broke NZ laws, it’s fine, I know how this piracy thing works, but at the time it seemed made up.

        • Noonecanknowitsme@beehaw.orgEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          It looks like they were charged in the US. I didn’t see with what specifically but the US sentenced them to prison for about a year and they elected to do their prison sentence in NZ (which is allowing one of them to wait until the birth of their child before beginning their sentence). It looks like NZ’s role in this isn’t harmful (besides allowing foreign search of their home)

  • itchy_lizard@feddit.itEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload, is continuing to fight the U.S. charges and threat of extradition. He has said he expects his former colleagues to testify against him as part of the deal they struck.

    • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      His expectation there matches his past behaviour, hardly surprising he has it (and probably justified). It’s been a while but in the early 90s he ratted out pirates and fellow credit card fraudsters, still ended up with two years suspended sentence (tried as juvenile) for fraud, computer fraud, organised fencing (not the rapier kind), and misuse of titles.

      Then there was that investment fraud thing, one and a half year suspended plus 100k Euro, early 2000s.

      Generally speaking: Big brain, giant ego, complete lack of wisdom.

      Now I’m sure Kiwis have plenty to gripe about about the behaviour of their government, but rest assured that it’s not hitting anyone innocent.

    • itchy_lizard@feddit.itEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Why would you think that? New Zealand doesn’t have for-profit prisons AFAIK. I think the US has the worst prisons.

      • Gray@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        I think they were just making a Lord of the Rings joke because the movies were filmed in New Zealand. I don’t think they really believe that New Zealand prisons are bad.