Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom (né Schmitz; born 21 January 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur and political activist who lives in Glenorchy, New Zealand.

Dotcom was born Kim Schmitz in 1974 in Kiel in the north of Germany in what was then politically West Germany.

His mother was Finnish, from Turku, so he holds a Finnish passport and has siblings in Finland.

His father was German.

He rose to fame in Germany in the 1990s as a hacker and an Internet entrepreneur.

He was arrested in 1994 for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers.

He was convicted on eleven charges of computer fraud, ten charges of data espionage and various other charges in 1998 that he served a two-year suspended sentence for.

During the 2000 Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, Dotcom chartered a 240 ft yacht and used it to host parties for guests such as Prince Rainier of Monaco.

In 2001, his main source of income was a company called Kimvestor, and he was known for spending his money on expensive cars and boats.

In 2003, he was deported to Germany where he pleaded guilty to embezzlement in November 2003 and after five months in jail awaiting trial he received another 20 months suspended sentence.

Dotcom is the founder and former CEO of the defunct file-hosting service Megaupload (2005–2012).

He legally changed his surname to Dotcom in 2005.

Prior to his arrest in New Zealand, he enjoyed a luxurious life.

Dotcom had one child from a previous relationship, who was born in September 2007.

Dotcom and Verga had four children together, all using IVF treatment.

In 2007, Dotcom met Mona Verga and married her on 10 July 2009.

The couple's first child together was born in 2009.

He was granted permanent residence in New Zealand on 29 November 2010.

While his residency was under consideration, Dotcom was planning a fireworks show in Auckland at a cost of NZ$600,000.

He leased a mansion in Coatesville, a rural community near Auckland, owned by entrepreneurs Richard and Ruth Bradley, and considered one of the most expensive homes in the country.

He wanted to buy the mansion when the lease expired.

Before his arrest in New Zealand, he was the world's number-one-ranked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 player out of more than 15 million online players.

Their second child together was born in 2010.

In 2012, the United States Department of Justice seized its website and pressed charges against Dotcom, including criminal copyright infringement, money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud.

Dotcom was residing in New Zealand at the time; at the request of US authorities, New Zealand police raided his home in 2012 and arrested him.

Dotcom posted bail and initiated legal proceedings in order to prevent his extradition to the United States.

Verga gave birth to twin girls in Auckland in March 2012, a month after he was released on bail from Mt Eden prison.

In 2013, Dotcom launched another cloud storage service called Mega, although he severed all ties with the service in 2015.

He also started and funded the Internet Party.

The party contested the 2014 New Zealand general election under an electoral alliance with the Mana Movement and contested the 2017 general election independently, but failed to win any seats at either election.

On 17 May 2014, Dotcom announced on Twitter that he was separated from his wife Mona and was filing for divorce.

Four days earlier, Mona had left her directorship positions in the Dotcom family's companies.

In 2017, a New Zealand court ruled that Dotcom could be extradited to the US on fraud charges related to Megaupload.

Dotcom denied any wrongdoing and has accused US authorities of pursuing a vendetta against him on behalf of politically influential Hollywood studios.

In 2017, Dotcom played a role in spreading conspiracy theories about the murder of Seth Rich.

They had been dating for two years and in 2017 moved to Queenstown to live.

Their first child together was born in November 2022.

In 2018, the New Zealand Court of Appeal upheld the lower court's ruling.

In November 2017, Dotcom announced he would marry his fiancée, Elizabeth Donnelly, on 20 January 2018; the anniversary of the raid during which he was arrested.

Dotcom appealed to the Supreme Court of New Zealand, which ruled in 2020 that Dotcom could be extradited to the United States, but that he could challenge the decision through judicial review.