Megaupload.com, the well-known and very popular file repository site, has been shut down by FBI. The FBI arrested its executives and have called the website an "international organized criminal enterprise". On the photo, standing in court from left to right Bram van der Kolk, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortman and Kim Dotcom (aka Kim Schmitz) appeared in North Shore District Court in Auckland, New Zealand in relation to arrests made to Megaupload case.
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The U.S. Department of Justice indictment alleges that Megaupload is a vast criminal enterprise that has caused more than $500 million in harm to copyright owners and was generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds.
The U.S. government has charged the following individuals in the indictment:
- Kim Dotcom, Megaupoad founder, a citizen of both Finland and Germany and a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand
- Finn Batato, the chief marketing office, a citizen and a resident of Germany
- Julius Bencko, the graphic designer, a citizen and a resident of Slovakia
- Sven Echternach, the head of business development, a citizen and a resident of Germany
- Mathias Ortmann, the chief technical officer, co-founder and director, a citizen of Germany and a resident of both Germany and Hong Kong
- Andrus Nomm, the software programmer and head of the development software division, a citizen of Estonia and a resident of both Turkey and Estonia
- Bram van der Kolk, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure, a Dutch citizen and a resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand