Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has decided former Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial.
The 50-year-old German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur has been living in New Zealand since 2010.
Charges were filed against Dotcom in the US in 2012 over his activities as the chief executive of the now defunct file hosting and sharing service.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed the decision in a statement this afternoon.
“I have received extensive advice from the Ministry of Justice on this matter,” he told 1News.
“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial.
“As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage.”
In a statement to social media platform X on Tuesday, Dotcom wrote “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload, unsolicited, and what copyright holders were able to remove with direct delete access instantly and without question”.
