Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, January 21, 1974 also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish computer programmer and businessman who rose to prominence during the dot-com bubble and was convicted of insider trading and embezzlement in its aftermath. He is also known as the founder of Megaupload and its associated websites. He legally changed his surname to Dotcom circa 2005. On January 20, 2012, the New Zealand police placed him in custody under the charges of criminal copyright infringement in relation to his Megaupload website.

Early career

As a teenager, Dotcom earned a reputation in his native Germany for cracking corporate PBX systems in the United States, and tried to parlay it into a career in data security. That effort led to his arrest on charges of using and selling stolen calling card numbers. In 1994, Dotcom founded a computer security company called DataProtect. In 1999, DataProtect and IVM engineering presented the "Megacar", a Brabus-tuned Mercedes-Benz S-Class W220 which, among other features, had a Windows NT server, a 17.3" SGI flat panel display and combined 16 GSM modules to provide mobile broadband Internet access.

In 1998, Dotcom was sentenced to a probationary sentence of two years for computer fraud and handling stolen goods. According to a report by News & Record, he had traded stolen calling card numbers he bought from hackers in the United States. He achieved early notoriety by being the subject of an advanced-for-its-time flash animation video called Kimble Special Agent. The name is a reference to Richard Kimble, the main character of the television series The Fugitive.

Dotcom later sold 80% of the shares of DataProtect to "TÜV Rheinland" in 2000, during the dot-com bubble. The former went bankrupt at the time of the subsequent market crash in 2001.

He is known for his large frame, as he is 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall and weighs 130 kilograms (290 lb).

Insider trading and embezzlement

In 2001, Dotcom purchased $375,000 worth of shares of the nearly bankrupt company LetsBuyIt.com and subsequently announced his intention to invest €50 million in the company. Unknown to others, Dotcom did not have the funds available to invest, although the announcement caused the share value of LetsBuyIt.com to jump by nearly 300%. Dotcom quickly sold the shares and profited $1.5 million as a result.

Dotcom had also arranged and obtained an unsecured loan of €280,000 from Monkey AG, a company for which Dotcom had served as Chairman of the Board. The funds were to be paid to Kimvestor AG. As a result, both Monkey and Kimvestor went bankrupt. Dotcom expressed remorse, stating that he had been "dazzled" and had not recognized that he would be unable to repay the loans.

In January 2002, Dotcom was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, deported to Germany, and sentenced to a probationary sentence of one year and eight months, and a €100,000 fine, the largest insider-trading case in Germany at the time. Dotcom also pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and received a two-year probation sentence.

Megaupload Limited businesses

On 21 March 2005, Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited, a Hong Kong-based file hosting and sharing business that eventually became the 13th most popular site on the internet with over 150 employees, US $175 million revenues, 50 million visitors daily, and estimated to be responsible at its peak for 4% of all internet traffic.

The Megaupload business' domain names were seized and the sites shut down by the U.S. Justice Department on 19 January 2012, following their indictment and arrests of the owners for allegedly operating as an organization dedicated to copyright infringement.

Civil litigation and controversies

He was sued for copyright infringement as owner of Megaupload. A settlement was later filed.

In December 2011, Dotcom's Megaworld (owner of Megaupload, Megavideo, Megalive and more) released its "Megaupload Song" promotional music video, which featured Kanye West, will.i.am, Jamie Foxx, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown and more lauding the service. Universal Music Group (UMG) responded by using the DMCA takedown process to have the clip removed from YouTube and other sites. Dotcom accused UMG of sending "illegitimate takedown notices", since UMG did not own the song in question, and Megaupload went on to file a lawsuit against UMG. A statement released by UMG claimed that a special arrangement exists between UMG and YouTube which allows UMG to take down any videos featuring their artists, regardless of copyright status. This claim was later explicitly denied by YouTube, which has since reinstated the video.

2012 arrest in New Zealand and seizure of Megaupload's websites

On January 5, 2012, indictments were filed in the US against Dotcom on criminal copyright infringement charges along with Július Benčko and 5 other associates. On January 19, 2012, Kim Dotcom, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were arrested in Coatesville, Auckland, New Zealand, by local authorities. Authorities were cooperating with the United States' FBI and Justice Department, Hong Kong Customs and the Hong Kong Department of Justice, the Netherlands Police Agency and the Public Prosecutor's Office for Serious Fraud and Environmental Crime in Rotterdam, London's Metropolitan Police Service, Germany’s Bundeskriminalamt and the German Public Prosecutors, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Department of Justice in the investigation preceding the arrests.

According to Dotcom's defence, the police operation against Megaupload was unnecessarily grandiose: "... armed officers arrived in helicopters and dropped into the Dotcom mansion courtyard."

On January 25th, 2012 (NZ local time) Dotcom was refused bail due to alleged risks of fleeing to Germany.

Other activities

Dotcom has taken part in the Gumball 3000 international road rally on several occasions, finishing "first" in 2001 in his Mercedes Brabus SV12 Megacar. He also competed in 2004.

Since 2001, Dotcom has received media coverage as a founder of a Hong Kong based investing company called Trendax. The company claimed to use artificial intelligence to maximize investment return and Dotcom tried to find investors for a hedge fund managed by the company. According to media reports Dotcom never had a proper license to start the fund.

In 2010, Dotcom leased a NZ$30M mansion at Coatesville, near Auckland, owned by Richard and Ruth Bradley, the British founders of Chrisco, and considered the most expensive house in the country. He had an arrangement to buy the mansion when the lease expired, but the New Zealand Government declined his application to buy the land on the basis that he did not meet the "good character" test. Dotcom was granted permanent residency in New Zealand in 2010.

An investigative piece found Dotcom in Hong Kong business records with the new name "Kim Tim Jim Vestor", allegedly bearing a Finnish passport, and acting as director of several "Mega-" companies, among them Megaupload Ltd. and Megarotic Ltd. According to Megaupload spokesperson B. Lam, Kim is one of many shareholders at Mega and not involved in most day-to-day business decisions.

Source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom