Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom Declares Himself Broke

The founder of seized file-sharing website Megaupload, Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz), has announced that he is “broke”. He claims to have expended £6.4 million in legal costs, defending himself against charges of internet privacy in New Zealand. His defence team, from law firm Simpson Grierson, has now stepped down since Dotcom cannot afford to continue paying them.

Dotcom said at a London conference, by videolink, “The [US authorities] have certainly managed to drain my resources and dehydrate me, and without lawyers I am defenceless. They used that opportunity to try and get my bail revoked and that’s what I’m facing.”

Dotcom’s finances also took a hit when the political party he backrolled, the internet Party, failed to gain a seat in New Zealand’s last general election back in September.

“Before I started my political movement – the Internet Party – I was quite popular in New Zealand,” Dotcom said. “After I got involved in politics and the prime minister of New Zealand and his party attacked me viciously, labelling me a Nazi… and [saying] I’m only starting my political party to fight my extradition… New Zealanders unfortunately have bought into that narrative and today I’m a pariah. The witch-hunt worked, and everyone wants to see me burn, and next Thursday I might go to jail because of that.”

The trial of Kim Dotcom continues.

Source: BBC