German web entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, as a businessman, politician, and world-ranking FPS player, is like a real-life Buckaroo Banzai. Unlike Banzai, however, Dotcom does not have friends in the United States government which, for the second time, has seized the New Zealand-based MEGA owner’s assets, worth millions of dollars.
The US government has won a civil foreclosure case against Dotcom, which has separated the mogul from around $67 million-worth of assets, including cash, property, luxury cars, jet skis, high-end appliances, and his art collection.
Dotcom told the New Zealand Herald that he feels cheated, since he was not entitled to defend himself against the foreclosure. He said, “By labelling me a fugitive the US court has allowed the US government to legally steal all of my assets without any trial, without any due process, without any test of the merits. The asset forfeiture was a default judgement. I was disentitled to defend myself.”
The foreclosure case relates to the on-going legal action against Dotcom over his former file-sharing site Megaupload, through which Dotcom was accused of breaching copyright, piracy, racketeering, and money laundering. Dotcom and his fellow Megaupload defendants are due for a hearing in June which may see them extradited to the US on criminal charges.
Source: New Zealand Herald
