A New Zealand court on Wednesday rejected internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom’s latest attempt to stop his extradition to the United States on charges tied to his file‑sharing site Megaupload, closing out another round in a legal fight that has spanned more than a decade.
High Court Justice Christine Grice dismissed Dotcom’s application for a judicial review of Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s August 2024 decision that Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face charges including copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering. Grice found no basis for Dotcom’s arguments that the minister’s decision was politically motivated or that he would face grossly disproportionate treatment if extradited.
The judge also rejected Dotcom’s contention that New Zealand police erred by charging two of his former business partners under domestic law while leaving him uncharged, a move Dotcom said resulted in lighter penalties than he would face in the U.S. Grice described the police decision to charge Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk in New Zealand and not pursue identical local charges against Dotcom as “a proper exercise of the Police's discretion.”
Dotcom, a Finnish‑German national who founded Megaupload in 2005, has fought U.S. extradition efforts since his dramatic arrest in a January 2012 raid on his Auckland mansion at the request of the FBI. U.S. prosecutors have said Megaupload generated at least $175 million, largely from users who illegally downloaded music, television and films, and characterized the case as the largest criminal copyright prosecution in U.S. history. Dotcom and his lawyers have argued the site’s users chose to pirate material, not its founders.
The legal defeat in the High Court does not end the matter. The decision can be appealed to the Court of Appeal; a deadline to file an appeal has been set for Oct. 8. It was not immediately clear whether Dotcom would pursue that option. One of his lawyers, Ron Mansfield, told Radio New Zealand the team had “much fight left in us as we seek to secure a fair outcome,” but he and Dotcom did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday.
Two former Megaupload officers, Ortmann and van der Kolk, pleaded guilty in a New Zealand court in June 2023 and were sentenced to two and a half years in prison; in return, U.S. extradition efforts against them were dropped. Prosecutors earlier abandoned extradition efforts against a fourth Megaupload officer, Finn Batato, who returned to Germany and died of cancer in 2022. Dotcom has been free on bail in New Zealand since February 2012.
Goldsmith said in a written statement that he was pleased his decision had been upheld. Grice’s ruling noted that the minister had considered Dotcom’s health, including what the court described as “significant health conditions,” and had not erred in concluding those conditions should not prevent extradition. Dotcom disclosed in a November 2024 post on X that he had suffered a stroke; in July he said his recovery had shown “good progress” though he continued to experience speech and memory impairment. Goldsmith’s extradition decision preceded Dotcom’s stroke.
New Zealand’s government has not disclosed further steps or a timeline for surrendering Dotcom to U.S. authorities. The case follows years of litigation in New Zealand courts, including a 2021 ruling by the country’s Supreme Court that Dotcom and two others could be surrendered, and marks the latest chapter in a 13‑year effort by the U.S. government to bring the Megaupload founder to trial.