Kim Dotcom had a lot of fun in his life: born as Kim Schmitz in Kiel in 1974, he first appeared in the hacker scene in the mid-80s. He later became a millionaire many times over with the data exchange Megaupload. All kinds of data could be uploaded to the platform and then accessed by other users. The company financed itself through advertising and paid access for subscribers. At times the site was one of the most popular websites in the world.
Dotcom invested his money in expensive cars, yachts and villas. He popped champagne corks with bikini girls on luxury yachts, took part in illegal street races with his Ferrari and traveled to the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco in a helicopter at the weekend. He flaunted his wealth on his YouTube channel.
In June 2010, Kim Dotcom applied for a New Zealand residency permit. The rapid crash followed in January 2012: During a raid on his property, the entrepreneur was arrested, his assets were frozen, his luxury cars were confiscated and his website was shut down following an investigation by the FBI. According to the US authorities’ allegations, there were also large quantities of illegally copied music, films, television programs and digital books. Megaupload made more than $175 million in illegal profits and caused the rightful owners of the content well over half a billion dollars in damages, it said. Another accusation was money laundering.
Kim Dotcom is still fighting his extradition
The general public only found out about Schmitz’s connections to Megaupload at the end of 2011. In a specially produced music video, stars such as Snoop Dogg, P. Diddy and Alicia Keys praised the advantages of Megaupload for exchanging large files. In the middle: Kim Schmitz, who sang the lyrics “It’s a hit. It’s a hit” in the studio. The “Mega Song” is spreading rapidly on the web
In February 2017, a New Zealand court ruled that he could be extradited to the US – not for copyright infringement, but for fraud. Since then, two other courts have confirmed the decision. Dotcom defended itself against this in the Supreme Court. His lawyers had alleged legal errors, prompting the Supreme Court to order a review.
Many allegations later turned out to be unfounded and the police raid was declared illegal. John Key, the New Zealand Prime Minister, later even had to publicly apologize to the German because he was illegally wiretapped and his computers were monitored. At the time, Dotcom wrote on Twitter that he had only made it possible to send Internet links by email with Megaupload in 2015. “That’s all. And in 2019 New Zealand’s Supreme Court will decide whether I should be extradited for this ‘crime’.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg6R8636drw
On Instagram, Kim Dotcom continues to showcase a life of luxury. Since January 2018, he has been married for the third time to the lawyer Elizabeth Donnely, with whom he has a child. He has five more children from his two previous marriages. This Sunday, the controversial entrepreneur is celebrating his 50th birthday.
Sources: stern archive, DPA archive, Youtube