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Two individuals who played a key role in the operation of the once-popular pirating website Megaupload have been sentenced to more than two years in prison by a New Zealand court. Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, after an 11-year legal battle, were finally sentenced, putting an end to their efforts to avoid extradition to the United States, where they faced more serious charges, including racketeering.
Last year, the men reached a plea deal with prosecutors from both New Zealand and the U.S., admitting their involvement in a criminal group and causing financial losses to artists through deceptive practices. As part of their agreement, it is anticipated that they will testify against Megaupload’s founder, Kim Dotcom, who continues to fight the U.S. charges and the looming threat of extradition.
According to U.S. prosecutors, Megaupload accumulated a staggering $175 million in revenue, primarily from individuals using the platform for illegal downloads of songs, television shows, and movies. However, in early 2012, the FBI intervened, shutting down the website and arresting Dotcom and other company officers.
Ortmann has been sentenced to 2 years and 7 months, while van der Kolk received a sentence of 2 years and 6 months. Although they could have faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, they argued for home detention. In a rare decision, New Zealand Judge Sally Fitzgerald allowed both men to delay serving their sentences until August for humanitarian reasons. Ortmann is expecting the birth of a child, and van der Kolk’s mother is ill.
Judge Fitzgerald acknowledged that the victims of Megaupload included wealthy multinational film and music companies, but also emphasized the impact on small companies, such as a New Zealand software firm.
In response to the sentences, Dotcom took to Twitter, calling them a “slap on the wrist” and suggesting that U.S. prosecutors were desperate. He stated that he had been advised that the men would be eligible for parole after 10 months, adding, “They will serve less than a year instead of the 185 years we were charged with. Good for them.”
Following their arrest in 2012, Dotcom and the other two men established a legitimate cloud-storage website called Mega. Dotcom later sold his stake in the company and experienced a falling out with his former colleagues.
The extradition of a fourth Megaupload officer, Finn Batato, was sought by U.S. prosecutors but was not carried out. Batato returned to Germany, where he passed away last year from cancer.
Andrus Nomm, a computer programmer for Megaupload from Estonia, pleaded guilty in 2015 to conspiring to commit felony copyright infringement and received a sentence of one year and one day in a U.S. federal prison.
While New Zealand’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Dotcom’s extradition to the U.S., the final decision rests with the country’s justice minister. The extradition decision can be appealed, further prolonging the legal process within New Zealand’s slow-moving legal system.