A court in New Zealand has denied internet mogul Kim Dotcom’s bid to avoid being sent to the United States where he faces criminal charges.<\/b>
The decision Monday follows an epic legal battle that has pitted Dotcom against the U. S. and New Zealand governments.
Dotcom is the flamboyant founder of file-sharing site Megaupload , which was shut down by the U. S. government. He was arrested in January 2012 in a spectacular raid by New Zealand police on his luxury mansion in Auckland, the country’s largest city.
Related: Kim Dotcom wins fight to live-stream court hearing on YouTube
Dotcom and three of his former business associates are wanted in the U. S. for charges including conspiracy to commit racketeering and money laundering. They deny the accusations and have been fighting hard against extradition, arguing that Megaupload was simply a file-sharing website and that they shouldn’t be blamed for what others were uploading to it.
On Monday, New Zealand’s High Court ruled that the four men are eligible to be handed over to U. S. authorities, the same outcome as an earlier decision of a lower court. But Dotcom’s lawyers say they’re not giving up and will now take the case to the Court of Appeal.
Extradition Judgement in a nutshell:
We won but we lost anyway \u2696\ufe0f<\/p>\n