LIVING LARGE

He’s accused of being one of the world’s most notorious digital pirates, and he’s captured a lot of treasure during his colorful career. Before he was tossed behind bars, Kim Dotcom was sailing through life in opulent style, jetting around the world, hobnobbing with bikini-clad beauties and racing fancy cars.

The 37-year-old was head of the sprawling online file-sharing service MegaUpload — or “Megaconspiracy,” as the Justice Department referred to it in an indictment. Born Kim Schmitz in Germany (he legally changed his surname to Dotcom), he holds German and Finnish citizenship and ran the Hong Kong-based MegaUpload from New Zealand, with files hosted in Virginia, which was enough for the U.S. to charge him and six associates.

Authorities in New Zealand yesterday loaded a fleet of 18 luxury vehicles — including Mercedes-Benzes, a 1959 pink Cadillac and a Rolls-Royce Phantom — worth an estimated $4.8 million onto trucks outside Dotcom’s palatial, $23 million estate nestled in green hills near Auckland.

Officers sent to arrest Dotcom found him and three co-defendants huddled in a panic room, where Dotcom allegedly was clinging to a sawed-off shotgun.
“It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door,” police detective Grant Wormald said of the raid.

The shotgun was seized, as were the cars, a large amount of electronic equipment and art, including a statue modeled after the extraterrestrial warrior from the movie “Predator,” police said.

A neighbor said she wasn’t surprised when she heard a helicopter hovering around his estate.

“I thought it was his private helicopter, which is parked up behind the trees, and I thought he was going out for breakfast, as he sometimes does,” she told the New Zealand Herald. “I thought, ‘This is going on a bit long,’ and it was a bit annoying at that time of the morning and so I got up and realized it was a police helicopter.”

According to the indictment, the seven shareholders charged — including Dotcom, who owns 68 percent of the company under the name Vestor Ltd. — stand to lose $175 million stashed in 64 accounts around the world. The two companies, Vestor and MegaUpload Ltd., and the seven shareholders face charges of racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and substantive criminal copyright infringement.

Already, rumors of a new MegaUpload site are circulating on the Internet, and a lawyer for the site, Ira Rothken, is asking for the company’s servers back.

“MegaUpload will vigorously defend itself,” Rothken told Reuters. “It is really offensive to say that just because people can upload bad things, therefore MegaUpload is automatically responsible.”

High-powered Washington attorney Robert Bennett, who defended President Bill Clinton against sexual harassment allegations, will be leading the company’s defense, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

This isn’t Dotcom’s first run-in with the law. He was put on a two-year probation as a teen in Germany after hacking into corporate systems and accepting goods from gang members. While in court facing fraud charges, he wore wraparound sunglasses and said he loved “feeling like a spy.” In 2001, he was convicted of insider trading in Germany after turning a profit on a nearly bankrupt company called LetsBuyIt.com. He was later arrested in Bangkok and deported to Germany, where he told reporters upon his return that he should be called “Royal Highness King Kimble the First, Ruler of the Kimpire.”

Because of Dotcom’s reputation, New Zealand officials first refused his 2010 application to buy a home in the country, saying that he failed a “good character” requirement. After he invested $8 million in New Zealand government bonds and donated to the Christchurch earthquake relief fund, his application was approved.

The list of Dotcom’s eccentricities runs almost as long as his rap sheet.

He has participated in the storied Gumball 3000, a semi-legal long-distance European road race where drivers are known to drive at speeds in excess of 200 mph on public roads, winning the race in 2001 and appearing in a special episode of MTV’s “Jackass.”

The 6-foot-7 entrepreneur, who weighs more than 300 pounds, has been frequently photographed with beautiful women and on and around yachts. Several of the luxury cars seized from his home had vanity license plates, among them “GOD,” “HACKER,” “EVIL” and “STONED.”

Reportedly, Dotcom has a wife named Mona and three children. In late 2007, he posted to a message board, “My new life is below the radar. I don’t need attention anymore. Nobody knows me where I live now. And I am slowly taking over the world without anyone noticing. :-)”

MegaUpload advertised itself as having more than 50 million visitors daily, and accounting for 4 percent of overall Internet traffic. Palo Alto Vendors, a security firm, said that according to its monitoring data, visits to MegaUpload-affiliated sites accounted for more than a quarter of corporate traffic, even more than fellow cyberlocker heavyweight Dropbox.

Lavish celebrations for Dotcom’s 38th birthday, planned for today, had to be canceled as Dotcom and his cohorts spend the weekend in jail, awaiting a bail hearing Monday.

U.S. authorities want him sent to Virginia for trial, but if Dotcom chooses to fight extradition, it could take more than a year.

Kase.Wickman@thedaily.com

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***PIRACY BILLS YANKED IN HOUSE AND SENATE

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from protesters and critics, Congress backed down yesterday from two controversial bills that take on web piracy.

Chairman Lamar Smith said the House Judiciary Committee would not take up the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would postpone a procedural vote on a similar bill in the Senate, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith, who sponsored SOPA, said in a statement.

“It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products,” the Texas Republican added.

Meanwhile, Reid said, “There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.”

“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the Protect IP Act,” the Nevada Democrat said, adding that he believes a compromise could still occur “in the coming weeks.”

The bills were aimed at stopping domestic access and funding to foreign-based websites that offer pirated movies, music and other content.

But the bills sparked controversy among many popular U.S. websites, including Wikipedia and Craigslist, which fear they will wind up as targets for unknowingly linking to pirated content. – NewsCore