"U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Personally Ordered Megaupload Shutdown" Claims Site Founder

The billionaire founder of Megaupload.com has claimed that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was personally responsible for giving the order which led to the FBI shutting down his site.

Kim DotCom, speaking to the website TorrentFreak, said he believed that Biden told attorney Neil MacBride to target his site.

He claimed that in one meeting, allegedly held to arrange the takedown of Magaupload, Biden met with the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, which crusades against movie piracy, an extradition expert and others.

Many observers expressed surprise at the speed with which the US government acted against DotCom when Megaupload was closed in January after 70 officers raided the New Zealand mansion of Dotcom – also known as Kim Schmitz – as part of an investigation led by the FBI.

DotCom was one of four men arrested during the operation, accused of being the ringleader of a group that netted $175million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other copyrighted content without authorization however his lawyers deny the claims and say the company simply offered online storage.
DotCom said: ‘I do know from a credible source that it was Joe Biden, the best friend of former Senator and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) boss Chris Dodd, who ordered his former lawyer and now state attorney Neil MacBride to take Mega down.

‘After we received information from an insider we scanned the White House visitor logs for all meetings of Chris Dodd and studio bosses with Joe Biden and Obama. They are publicly available on the White House 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.’

Last week a New Zealand judge found the warrants used in the seizure of property from Dotcom’s mansion near Auckland were illegal.

Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled that moves by the FBI to copy data from Dotcom’s computer and take it offshore were also unlawful.

Dotcom is currently on bail in New Zealand, fighting attempts by U.S. authorities seeking to extradite him on charges of copyright theft and money laundering. An extradition hearing is set for August.

Source: Daily Mail via TorrentFreak

Patrick Griffin

Patrick has spent more than 20 years as a national newspaper journalist covering everything from hard news to showbiz and sport. As editor-at-large of YourGadgetGuide, Patrick likes to focus on how technology can be used to transform and improve our lifestyles.