'America radicalised me!' cries Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom

Microsoft is fulfilling the dreams of many by taking a common enemy to court – the tax-man. The software firm is suing the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because the authority won’t come clean on why it’s been digging into Microsoftie tax records from 2004 to 2009.

Redmond claims that the IRS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for records relating to the agency’s contract with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a law firm it hired to investigate Microsoft. The legal beaks appear to be digging up data on how Microsoft pays its own subsidiaries, presumably in case the company managed to cheat on its taxes with transfer pricing.

The IRS has asked Microsoft twice for an extension to the 20 days in which it’s legally required to respond to a freedom of information request, and the company is tired of waiting. The firm said in a court filing:

Defendant's failure to timely respond is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, and without observance of procedure required by law, all in violation of the [Administrative Procedure Act].

The company also said in a statement:

Government agencies, funded by citizens, have an obligation of transparency under the Freedom of Information Act. The IRS has failed to meet the deadline to respond to a valid FOIA request, and we’re simply asking a Court to ensure that the IRS meets its obligations.

And finally, Kim Dotcom has claimed that he’s spent most of his internet millions on his legal defence, which is attempting to defeat extradition from New Zealand to the US to face online piracy charges. The Megaupload founder told the unBound Digital conference in London:

My legal team has recently resigned because I ran out of money after spending $10 million to try and defend myself. They [The US government] have certainly managed to drain my resources… and without lawyers I’m defenceless so they use that opportunity to try to get my bail revoked.

But later, Dotcom talked about how he’d transferred the shares for his new filesharing site Mega to his wife and children, saying he was “officially broke”, which could mean still actually quite rich, as long as he stays on good terms with the wife.

He also said that his treatment by America had “radicalised” him against the nation and he didn’t appreciated being targeted, which he says occurred because of his flamboyant lifestyle and German nationality:

Hollywood has a thing about German villains.

He reckons everything that’s wrong with everything else is probably the US’s fault:

I'm probably influenced by what's happened to me, so don't take my word for it… but the US is causing all these issues around the world.

They went to Iraq to try to bring peace, now we have ISIS raging a terror state. Everything they touch turns into disaster. It's a trend right now. Look at what is happening with our rights. The US government is spying on every human being on the planet and breaching every human being's right to privacy. They are in breach of 50 per cent of the international human rights charter.

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