KimDotcom takes fight to US Supreme Court to regain seized assets

Kim Dotcom has submitted a case to the US Supreme Court for relief against the seizure of his assets. Dotcom is arguing that seizures arose from “unproven allegations of the most novel, dubious United States crimes.”

The Internet entrepreneur, who created the now defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, filed the case on Friday in what he described as, “the largest criminal copyright case in history.”

Born in Germany, Dotcom has resided in New Zealand since 2010, where he is currently fighting extradition to the US for charges relating to racketeering, copyright infringement, money laundering, and fraud.

The US has claimed millions of dollars worth of his assets which were seized through court orders in New Zealand and Hong Kong back in 2012.

The seizure was upheld on civil forfeiture grounds after Dotcom was ruled a fugitive for avoiding trial in the US. In a statement released on Saturday, Dotcom claims the case will argue that the “harsh sanction[s]” placed on him were based on “unproven allegations.”

Dotcom argues the current procedure allows the US government to seize assets, “without affording a foreign defendant any opportunity to challenge in court whether the foreign assets are traceable to criminal conduct, whether the Government’s allegations are sufficient to establish the charged crime, or even whether the charged “crime” is a crime at all.”

He argued that defendants were being left to decide between abandoning their rights to challenge an extradition or “forever forfeit their assets (and, correspondingly, their ability to fund a criminal defense).”

Dotcom is listed in the case as a defendant alongside his wife Mona and several members of the Megaupload staff who are also wanted in the US.