NZ authorities hobnob with US bigwigs over Dotcom arrest

Dotcom: Joe Biden behind shutdown

Kim Dotcom says the shutdown of his Megaupload filesharing service was ordered by the White House after Hollywood studio executives met with US Vice President Joe Biden.

NZ Herald,

4 July, 2012

The meetings are revealed in publicly released White House logs which show some of the most powerful figures in Hollywood met with studio bosses about six months before the January raids which led to the arrest of Dotcom and three of his Megaupload colleagues.

The claim comes just days ahead of the release of Dotcom's first music single titled Mr President. The song is about the shutdown of his website and is directly aimed at US President Barack Obama.

It also comes the day Dotcom heads back to court for a judicial review into an order the FBI produce evidence against him for the extradition hearing, which is scheduled for August 6.

At least one of those named in the White House logs also met with a senior New Zealand politician before the raid - at a time when parts of the government were aware of interest in Dotcom.

The logs show Mr Biden met with Warner Bros Entertainment chief executive Barry Meyer, Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, the Motion Picture Association's Asia managing director Mike Ellis, MPAA chief executive Chris Dodd, Sony Pictures vice chairman Jeff Blake, Universal Studios president Ronald Meyer, MPAA global policy executive Michael O'Leary and Walt Disney Studios then-chairman Rich Ross.

Former justice minister Simon Power met Mr Ellis in March last year. Mr Ellis is a former police superintendent in Hong Kong and an expert in extradition.

"I do know from a credible source that it was Joe Biden, the best friend of former Senator and MPAA boss Chris Dodd, who ordered his former lawyer and now state attorney Neil MacBride to take Mega down," Dotcom told the TorrentFreak website.

"It is interesting that a man by the name of Mike Ellis of MPA Asia, an extradition expert and former superintendent of the Hong Kong police, was also at a meeting with Dodd, all studio bosses and Joe Biden. The same Mike Ellis met with the Minister of Justice Simon Power in New Zealand."

Mr Power declined Dotcom's application to purchase the mansion in Coatesville four months later in July last year, after officials recommended the sale be approved. The decision came just days after the Crown Law Office first started working on the FBI case.

Fellow minister Maurice Williamson had already approved the sale but changed his mind after Mr Power turned Dotcom down. It has since emerged officials had told the ministers of interest in Dotcom by the FBI after a tip from an unknown source to Immigration NZ in 2010.

Officials at Immigration NZ and the Overseas Investment Office investigated Megaupload, raising no concerns about its operation. They also investigated Dotcom's wealth, saying it had been earned legitimately. Prime Minister John Key said Mr Power's rejection of the application was simply because he was conservative and believed it did not have the right feel.