{"id":44599,"date":"2012-02-29T11:04:29","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T09:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=44599"},"modified":"2012-02-29T11:05:16","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T09:05:16","slug":"dotcom-remains-free-on-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/44599-dotcom-remains-free-on-bail.html","title":{"rendered":"Dotcom remains free on bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of the online file-sharing site Megaupload.com<\/a> has asked a New Zealand court to free nearly a quarter of a million dollars in frozen assets to pay for living expenses, including nannies and bodyguards, as a bid by the United States to put him back behind bars was thrown out of court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kim Dotcom<\/a>, a German national also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is charged by the United States with being an Internet pirate whose group netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.<\/p>\n

Dotcom, who is on bail in New Zealand pending an extradition hearing, says the company offered online storage and will fight extradition.<\/p>\n

With all his funds frozen, Dotcom on Wednesday asked for around NZ$220,000 to be released to cover lease costs of a multi-million dollar mansion outside of Auckland, wages for staff, and other living expenses such as phones and power.<\/p>\n

The application said that Dotcom paid NZ$1 million a year to lease the country estate, around NZ$600,000 on maintenance and property costs. He also sought more than NZ$50,000 a month to pay for a nanny, a tutor for an autistic child, personal assistants, and four bodyguards.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand High Court granted Dotcom an interim payment of around NZ$32,000 to cover immediate living costs, as well as the use of a car, pending a final decision on continuing financial support.<\/p>\n

Dotcom has three children and his wife is due to give birth to twins late next month.<\/p>\n

In a separate High Court case, the United States appealed against Dotcom’s bail and asked for him to be returned to jail pending his extradition hearing in late August.<\/p>\n

The prosecution said Dotcom is an extreme flight risk because he has had multiple passports, sources of funds, access to various means of travel, and a previous history of fleeing to avoid criminal charges.<\/p>\n

But the court rejected the appeal, saying the electronic bracelet Dotcom must wear, along with other restrictions on his movements, were sufficient to allow him to remain free.<\/p>\n

“It’s great to be able to return home with my family and I’m looking forward to fight these charges on a level playing field, so indeed I’m very relieved today,” Dotcom told reporters outside the court.<\/p>\n

Last week the lower court placed Dotcom under virtual house arrest in a small house on a corner of the country estate.<\/p>\n

Signs at the entrance to the house tell visitors to leave all mobile phones, smart phones and laptops at the gate, as Dotcom is forbidden to use the Internet as a condition of bail.<\/p>\n

Dotcom, 38, and three others, were arrested on January 20 after armed New Zealand police raided his country estate at the request of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An extradition hearing to send all four to the United States for trial has been set down for late August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bid by the United States to put Kim Dotcom back behind bars was thrown out of court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340871,"featured_media":41789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,8291,8293],"class_list":["post-44599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-active","tag-kim-dotcom","tag-megaupload"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}