Alleged video pirate Kim Dotcom loses in U.S. appeals court.
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| Politico - Screen Grab |
A divided federal appeals court has rejected a bid by accused video pirate Kim Dotcom to recover millions of dollars in assets ordered seized by a U.S. court at the request of American prosecutors.
A panel of the Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, 2-1, Friday that Dotcom—the swashbuckling founder of the once-highly-popular file-sharing website Megaupload—could not recover his assets because he remains a fugitive from criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a scheme that allegedly caused $500 million in damages to the motion picture industry.
"The refusal to face criminal charges that would determine whether or not the claimants came by the property at issue illegally supports a presumption that the property was, indeed, so obtained," Judge Roger Gregory wrote in an opinion joined by Judge Allyson Duncan.
The court's majority also rejected arguments from Dotcom and co-defendants that prosecutors needed to show that the defendants' principal or sole reason for remaining outside the U.S. was to avoid the criminal charges.
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