Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/09/kim_dotcom_megaupload_copyright_5m_bounty/

Kim Dotcom: You give me proof of govt corruption in my case, I give you millions

Megaupload man: $5m for dirty on those trying to 'destroy me'

By Brid-Aine Parnell

Posted in Legal, 9th June 2014 09:52 GMT

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is offering a $5m bounty to anyone who can prove corruption by the Feds or Hollywood studios to help him defend against the online piracy case against him.

Dotcom tweeted that his case was “unfair” and he was offering the cash to anyone who wanted to blow the whistle on the authorities.

In an interview with TorrentFreak.com, Dotcom said that he was looking for any information that would prove unlawful or corrupt conduct from the US or New Zealand government, spy agencies, law enforcement or Hollywood corporations.

“It is the opinion of my legal team that disclosure of such information would be lawful. I would also guarantee that any whistleblower coming forward would have the best legal representation at zero cost,” he said.

Dotcom has previously claimed that the only reason the US government came after him so hard was to get Hollywood support for the re-election campaign of President Barack Obama. He said that he was particularly keen on getting any evidence supporting that allegation.

“Former Senator and now MPAA chairman Chris Dodd and Vice President Joe Biden in particular have abused their political power to make the pre-trial destruction of Megaupload possible,” he said.

“Joe Biden’s personal counsel (while Biden was still a Senator) Neil MacBride was promoted to a top position at the DoJ and oversaw the Megaupload destruction. We have already exposed a whole range of unlawful government conduct in the Megaupload case, backed by court rulings.”

The Megaupload founder also said that the information he got wouldn’t have to be “case winning” to score the bounty, saying he would pay out for “anything useful”.

Meanwhile, record labels and movie studios have come together in New Zealand court to press again to have Dotcom’s assets frozen while their claim against him goes ahead.

Music firms Warner Music, Sony Music, UMG Recordings and Capitol Records and film companies Paramount, Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures sent lawyers into the High Court in Auckland on Monday to argue their case, the Australian Associated Press reported.

The firms claim that file-sharing site Megaupload and its operators encouraged and profited from massive copyright infringement, so their assets should be frozen. The legal team for Dotcom and his estranged wife Mona said they would allow the freeze, but only if the companies offered security of NZ$250,000 for the site founder and the same for Mona.

Although the companies tried to argue that the sums had no basis, the judge said that the amount was “peanuts” for such huge corporations. Justice John Fogarty has ordered them to negotiate the conditions of the freeze themselves, but he’ll step in if they can’t agree in the next few weeks.

If the civil case can’t get his assets frozen, there’s still a chance that the US government’s case will. Dotcom had his assets put on ice by the US and New Zealand governments back in January 2012, but managed to get them unstuck in April this year when an application to extend the freeze was declined. The authorities are still appealing that decision. ®