Internet Entrepreneur Kim Dotcom Says He Suffered “Serious Stroke” Amid Extradition Battle

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Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who is battling deportation from New Zealand to the United States, said he’s recovering from a “serious stroke.”

“I am recovering from a serious stroke. I have the best health professionals helping me to make a recovery. I will be back as soon as I can. Please be patient and pray for my family and I,” he said.

Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, confirmed to the Associated Press that the statement is accurate.

Dotcom faces an extradition order to the United States as U.S. authorities want to put him on trial for copyright infringement and money laundering.

If convicted, he could face decades in prison.

From the Associated Press:

News of his ill health comes during a protracted battle by the U.S. government to extradite the Finnish-German millionaire to the United States from New Zealand to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

In August, New Zealand ’s justice minister announced that Dotcom should be surrendered to the United States to face trial, a ruling intended to cap a 12-year legal battle. A date for the extradition was not set, and Paul Goldsmith, the minister, said Dotcom would be allowed “a short period of time to consider and take advice” on the decision.

Rothken at the time wrote on X that Dotcom intended to challenge the order in court through a judicial review, in which a judge is asked to evaluate whether an official’s decision was reached correctly.

The saga stretches to the 2012 arrest of Dotcom in a dramatic raid on his Auckland mansion, along with other company officers. Prosecutors said the once wildly popular Megaupload raked in at least $175 million — mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies — before the FBI shut it down earlier that year.

“Don’t worry I have a plan,” Dotcom previously said.

“I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving,” he added.

Per DPA International:

In 2018, Dotcom had already stated that he had major health problems after “six years of stress” with regard to the legal disputes.

New Zealand’s Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith signed an extradition order in August – much to the annoyance of Dotcom, who was defiant. “I love New Zealand. I’m not going anywhere,” he wrote on social media at the time.

One of his lawyers then announced his intention to take the case to the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

The entrepreneur, who was born in the northern German city of Kiel in 1974, has been involved in legal wrangling for years. There have already been several proceedings up to the Supreme Court in Wellington to prevent his extradition.

Following investigations by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), it was shut down in 2012.



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