Kim Dotcom Loses Megaupload Domain Names, Gets “Destroyed” Gaming Chair Back

 The U.S. Government has won another civil forfeiture case against  Megaupload and Kim Dotcom. As a result, the U.S. now owns several online  bank accounts, cars, servers, as well as Megaupload's domain names.  Around the same time, the US returned two containers of seized property,  as previously ordered by a Hong Kong court. These goods were not  treated properly, according to an outraged Dotcom.  

 Following the 2012 raid on Megaupload and Kim Dotcom, U.S. and New  Zealand authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and other  property, located around the world. 

 Claiming the assets were obtained through copyright and money laundering  crimes, the U.S. government launched separate civil cases in which it  asked the court to forfeit bank accounts, servers, domain names, and  other seized possessions of the Megaupload defendants. 

 One of these cases was lost  after the U.S. branded Dotcom and his colleagues as “fugitives”.The  defense team appealed the ruling, but lost again, and a subsequent  petition at the Supreme Court was denied. 

 Following this lost battle, the U.S. also moved to conclude a separate  civil forfeiture case, which was still pending at a federal court in  Virginia.  

 The assets listed  in this case are several bank accounts, including several at PayPal, as  well as 60 servers Megaupload bought at Leaseweb. What has the most  symbolic value, however, are the domain names that were seized,  including Megaupload.com, Megaporn.com and Megavideo.com.  

 This week a U.S. federal court decided that all claims of Kim Dotcom,  his former colleague Mathias Ortman, and several Megaupload-related  companies should be stricken. A default was entered against them on Tuesday. 

 The same fugitive disentitlement argument was used in this case. This  essentially means that someone who’s considered to be a fugitive from  justice is not allowed to get relief from the judicial system he or she  evades. 

 “Claimants Kim Dotcom and Mathias Ortmann have deliberately avoided  prosecution by declining to enter or reenter the United States,” Judge  Liam O’Grady writes in his order to strike the claims. 

 “Because Claimant Kim Dotcom, who is himself a fugitive under Section  2466, is the Corporate Claimants’ controlling shareholder and, in  particular, because he signed the claims on behalf of the corporations, a  presumption of disentitlement applies to the corporations as well.”  

 As a result, the domain names which once served 50 million users per  day, are now lost to the US Government. The court records list 18  domains in total, which were registered through Godaddy, DotRegistrar,  and Fabulous. 

 Given the legal history, the domains and other assets are likely lost  for good. However, Megaupload defense lawyer Ira Rothken is not giving  up yet.  

 “We are still evaluating the legal options in a climate where Kim Dotcom  is being labeled a fugitive in a US criminal copyright case even though  he has never been to the US, is merely asserting his US-NZ extradition  treaty rights, and the NZ High Court has ruled that he and his  co-defendants did not commit criminal copyright infringement under NZ  law,” Rothken tells TorrentFreak.  

 There might be a possibility that assets located outside the US could be  saved. Foreign courts are more open to defense arguments, it seems, as a  Hong Kong court previously ordered the US to return several assets belonging to Kim Dotcom. 

 The Hong Kong case also brought some good news this week. At least,  something that was supposed to be positive. On Twitter, Dotcom writes  that two containers with seized assets were returned, but in a “rotten  and destroyed” state. 

 “A shipment of 2 large containers just arrived in New Zealand. This is  how all my stuff looks now. Rotten & destroyed. Photo: My favorite  gaming chair,” Dotcom wrote. 

 According to Dotcom, the US Government asked him to pay for ‘climate  controlled’ storage for more than half a decade to protect the seized  goods. However, judging from the look of the chair and the state of some  other belongings, something clearly went wrong. 

Source: TorrentFreak