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[marilyn.monroe]

A New Zealand High Court ruling that the armed police raid on piracy accused Kim Dotcom's Auckland mansion was illegal is a major blow to US authorities trying to extradite him, his United States lawyer says.

Justice Helen Winkelmann on Thursday ruled the search warrants were too broad and police exceeded their powers in seizing what they did.

She also said it was unlawful for copies of Dotcom's computer files to be taken by US authorities and New Zealand police should return copies to 38-year-old Dotcom.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/dotcoms-lawyer-hits-out-at-us-authorities-20120629-21639.html

[marilyn.monroe]

Megaupload Founder Offers Deal to the US
By John Ribeiro, IDG News

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has offered to do a deal with U.S. prosecutors, who are seeking his extradition from New Zealand to the U.S.

"They are sitting on all my money. I have no money to pay my lawyers. Every move they make, they know I have to send my lawyers there. They make it so I have no chance in the long run to defend myself. Lawyers need money too," he told the newspaper. Dotcom's assets were seized in January.

Dotcom told the newspaper he had accumulated millions of dollars in legal bills and had not been able to pay a single cent. "They just want to hang me out to dry and wait until there is no support left," he said.

Dotcom said he would willingly go to the U.S. if he and his co-defendants were given a guarantee of a fair trial, money to pay for defense and funds to support themselves and their families.

"They will never agree to this and that is because they can't win this case and they know that already," he told the newspaper.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/259076/megaupload_founder_offers_deal_to_the_us.html?tk=out



Let corporate defend themselves. The US Gov has bigger fish to fry.

[marilyn.monroe]

Despite New Zealand High Court Ruling seizures illegal, US government refuses to relinquish Dotcom's property.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/28/dotcom_seizures_illegal/


The United States government is holding firm against the pursuit of file sharing platform Megaupload and its founders stating that even if the indictment of the Megaupload corporation is dismissed, it will continue the indefinite freeze on its assets.

During a federal hearing in the U.S last Friday, prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady to uphold their charges against infamous file-hosting site Megaupload.

 



Megaupload’s team have been arguing to dismiss the indictment as they posit that criminal procedure does not allow a way to serve notice on corporations that do not have a US address. Judge Liam O'Grady did not issue a ruling.
 
Founder Kim Dotcom received a reprieve from the New Zealand courts earlier this month with the delay of his extradition hearing until 2013, based on his legal team argument that the court violated the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by failing to mail a summon to their client's last known address in the United States.

Team Megaupload also maintain that U.S. prosecutors have no legal jurisdiction over the company as it is a foreign entity with no official presence in the United States.

"They wiped out a foreign company that does not reside in the United States by bringing a criminal case against it. If this were a person ... there would be little argument that there were due process violations," Megaupload lawyer William Burck said during Friday's hearing.

Burck requested that Judge O'Grady dismiss the indictment without prejudice and force the Department of Justice to re-file charges.

The U.S prosecutors claimed that mailing summons to the offices of Dotcom's U.S based lawyers or to Megaupload’s Virginia based hosting supplier Carpethia Hosting was sufficient process.

They added that under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty they would also be able to send a summons to Megaupload's address in Hong Kong.

The Justice Department's Ryan Dickey said that Congress has "made it crystal clear" that they will address global copyright crime and that they would be relentless in the pursuit of Dotcom and his employees with criminal charges whenever they are extradited to the United States.

Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America branded Dotocm a “career criminal” and claimed that even if the case against Megaupload were dismissed it would have little practical impact as Dotcom and his co-founders are still facing indictment.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/30/megaupload_pursuit_unrelenting/