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One-way flight to Russia? His Twitter feed for the last decade does give merit to the idea that he's been on the payroll.
by popcalc 2y ago
One-way flight to Russia? His Twitter feed for the last decade does give merit to the idea that he's been on the payroll.
- snapcaster 2y agoWhat other options does he have? I really wish people wouldn't cheer when smallfolk like us get crushed by the state. Not saying he's perfect, but what him and others have to suffer seems vastly out of proportion to what they did
- wepple 2y agoI do not categorize him as “small folk like us”
- popcalc 2y agoAgree. "Two weeks later on 20 January, Dotcom, Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were arrested in Coatesville, New Zealand by the New Zealand Police, in an armed raid on Dotcom's house involving 76 officers and two helicopters. Seized assets included eighteen luxury cars, large TVs, works of art and US$175 million in cash. Dotcom's bank accounts were frozen, denying him access to 64 bank accounts world-wide[...]" No one legit has 175MM in cash sitting around. That's the realm of dictators and drug lords.
- herendin2 2y ago$175M quickly becomes meaningless in this context, believe me. It's already much more than you need.
- finikytou 2y agohow old are you? did you live through the megaupload era? for a few years it was ubiquitous and def a cashcow machine
- actionfromafar 2y agoYes, but converting that cashcow to a hundred million dollars in actual bills, is something special.
- Gormo 2y agoIf someone's a weirdo and wants to stuff their millions into a mattress, that by itself should not be sufficient to presume them guilty of any illegal activity, or justify seizing their money.
- queuebert 2y agoWait til you hear about this new startup called Google. They are going to launch yet another search engine. I doubt there's much money in it, though. They'll be lucky to make a few million.
- diggan 2y agoHow much physical cash (actual notes/bills) do you think Google founders have in their home? Close to $175 million? Not that that justifies anything, people should be free to keep as much physical cash as they want.
- echoangle 2y agoAre you missing the point on purpose? The suspicious thing isn’t that he has money, it’s that he’s storing the money physically as cash in his home. You think Google has a safe at the HQ filled with dollar notes?
- dmantis 2y agoSounds pretty logical in a world where banking secrecy doesn't exist and most banks are compliant with a single jurisdiction which doesn't respects other ones. Don't see what's wrong to preserve your property outside of the modern banking system if you are against the US.
- rout39574 2y agoIf that logic sounds sketch when the police take $10K from a man going to buy a car, it should also be sketch when you add zeros somewhere else. In general "That's really unusual behavior" shouldn't be enough to forfeit a fortune.
- popcalc 2y agoHe hasn't been sentenced, let alone seen court yet. You don't have a right to flee a warrant for your arrest?
- woodruffw 2y agoI don’t think the money in question was forfeited in the sense that the US uses, only seized pending an investigation. The lack of a corrupting incentive alone makes the seizure less suspicious in my eyes.
- newswasboring 2y agoI don't know about you, but where I come from this looks like punishment through process. Not even trying to defend this Kim dude, just pointing out just because the process is "fair" doesn't mean its fair. Yes that is not a very well articulated point, but this is something which many people should have a feeling for in their bones.
- woodruffw 2y agoI agree that process can be used as punishment. But I don't see any evidence that Dotcom has been uniquely or unfaithfully subjected to processes, or that his treatment is unusual given the charges he's facing. Remember: he's not being charged just for copyright infringement. If he was, then freezing his assets would be unusual. He's being charged with money laundering and racketeering, two crimes that involve illegal flows of money.
- LeifCarrotson 2y agoA man's labor and intelligence can eventually earn him $10k to buy a car. Over a long career, one might eventually amass a fortune on the order of $1M. Kim might (hypothetically) have an IQ of 150 and be willing to work punishingly long hours where our analogous car buyer went home to be with his family. But it's completely farcical to state that he's 10,000 times smarter or harder-working than a baseline human, that's absurd - it's far more reasonable to assume that he assigned the value of the efforts of others to himself, stole, manipulated, scammed, or otherwise acquired that $175M illegitimately. And that's ignoring that it was $175M in cash, as if it was pocket change to him; there's no good explanation for him to have that much in investments much less in physical money lying around. I feel the same about Musk's or Bezos' mind-boggling fortunes; Jeff isn't making $2M per hour while his exhausted employees make $16/hr (while peeing in bottles on a breakneck pace through the warehouse) because he's foregoing all human needs and limits, packing boxes at hypersonic speeds for 60 hours per day without rest. Obviously, he makes $2M/hr because their labor is worth $25/hr or more and he diverts the excess for himself.
- earnesti 2y agoThe guy has a lot of money, so therefore he is more guilty than normal men?
- criddell 2y agoI think they were just backing up the "he's not small folk like us" statement.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoThe thing about that word "smallfolk", is that there is a very heavy connotation that someone remains smallfolk no matter how positively fortune smiles upon them. No matter how wealthy they might become, not even if they can ride a dragon, do they suddenly become nobles. The people using the word to say that Kimmy D isn't smallfolk don't even understand the vocabulary they favor.
- SpicyLemonZest 2y agoThe guy has a lot of money, so therefore it’s very tedious when people characterize him as a smol bean who just wanted to help people share their data. It’s a smokescreen for the real position (which I recognize some people do legitimately hold) that copying and selling movies without compensating the people who made them is a legitimate business model and it’s OK to make lots of money doing it.
- karmonhardan 2y ago[flagged]
- echoangle 2y agoHow is Hollywood not compensating the people making the movies? Don’t they have contracts managing the payment? Taking a finished movie and just distributing it without consent is something different than making contracts with the creators. Or are you talking about something else?
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoAssuming $100 bills, that's nearly two tons of cash. (3800 pounds.) Definitely not "small folk like us".
- DSingularity 2y agoPlease. It fits his personality perfectly to do something like keep all his money in cash. If he was a drug lord or if he was even remotely connected to malicious security services he would have been long taken by force. New Zealand is a close US ally.
- manuelmoreale 2y ago> It fits his personality perfectly to do something like keep all his money in cash How do you explain this part then: > Dotcom's bank accounts were frozen, denying him access to 64 bank accounts world-wide
- DSingularity 2y agoWhy is it so odd that an anti authoritarian individual would keep large sums of money in cash and distribute whatever cash he does keep in as many bank accounts as possible? Can you explain why we should be fixated with how much money he has or how he stores his money wrt the criminal case being prosecuted? If there was something there wouldnt they have revealed it in their accusations years ago?
- manuelmoreale 2y agoI’m not interested in arguing for or against him because I don’t care about him or this case. I was just pointing out the irony in your comment where you just assert that it was perfect in line with is character to have ALL is money in cash while literally the next line says he has 64 bank accounts scattered all over the globe.
- DSingularity 2y agoI’m just saying that this guy distrusts authority so it’s not surprising that he was caught with a lot of cash or that he has a web of accounts. My larger point is about the fact that these insinuations should be dismissed because it’s reasonable to assume that if there was major wrong doing in his finances (eg drug lord) they would have included the evidence in the extradition request. Feels like we are being a bit pedantic.
- phyalow 2y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4TXAaqmj0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4TXAaqmj0E This video of Kim is a classic (I think it came out origianlly c. 2009). The last shot of his table with a stack of Gold Bars in the middle is very revealing (or maybe moreso is his Rolls Royce with the plate "GOD")....
- swozey 2y agoI feel like I'm watching satire of what a 2000s mega rich nerd would be like but it's really him. He even has a basket/hanger on the wall for all of his ... canes. Didn't see the fedoras nearby, though. "At only 1.5 years of age, (kims kid) is already at the top of most xbox leaderboards." What?? His bodyguards are picked out by a Kung Fu master?? This is so ridiculously cliche. Nobody serious about their security would hire Kung Fu martial artists to train their team. I train a bunch of martial arts (boxing, muay thai, bjj, hapkido) and I would never use something like kung fu in a tussle. I've got 16yo junior amateur boxers that could probably knock that kung fu master out in a single hit. Gold bricks are here https://youtu.be/A4TXAaqmj0E?t=365 https://youtu.be/A4TXAaqmj0E?t=365
- karmonhardan 2y agoI think it's purposely meant to be camp.
- phyalow 2y agoAbsolutely.
- biztos 2y agoLarge TVs? I wonder what the threshold is for assets worth seizing. Anything under about 100” is going to cost more to seize than it’s worth. If the kitchen is full of AllClad do they seize the cookware?
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoAt least with local departments, yes police will seize kitchen appliances if they are high dollar. Then it all goes up for auction. Maybe a cop likes the look of it, picks it up for pennies on the dollar at the auction. Maybe no one bids and it all gets junked. While the primary purpose of civil forfeiture is to seize valuables, there are sometimes secondary concerns... the cops like to fuck with certain people, and if they can just make them paupers by taking their belongings then that alone can be enough motivation. Paperwork's pretty light because jewelry or cash never has lawyers to defend itself. Feds seem to be a bit more discriminating, tending towards larger amounts of cash, bullion, vehicles, and real estate. But I've seen more than a few news articles over the years where they seized property you might call petty.
- biztos 2y agoThese are the New Zealand police, right? I get that there’s a lot of corruption, but “nice GameBoy, my kid’ll love it after auction” seems like a stretch even for the US. If nothing else, it has a paper trail, right?
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoThey are. I suppose. I guess to know which police they are, one might have to see who they get their marching orders from. TVs were seized of course, and while an extraditing authority might request/demand evidence to be seized too, what were they hoping to find in the televisions do you think? > I get that there’s a lot of corruption, but “nice GameBoy, my kid’ll love it after auction” seems like a stretch even for the US. Choose to believe or not, matters not to me. But I would point you at the many mainstream news articles of places that make road trips through where the local police shake people down for valuables, and the many corvettes and sports cars painted in black and white that cops drive as squad cars. Are these confiscating those because they make such good vehicles for hauling people away to the holding cell?
- throwaway48540 2y agoIt's still a human. He just shared songs on the the internet. He's treated like a war criminal.
- diggan 2y agoMaybe I don't know the full story, but as far as I understand, it seems like they (Megaupload) were ignoring DMCA takedown requests for a long time, was aware there was a ton of piracy on the site and didn't give any indication whatsoever that they were even trying to react to it by banning accounts that were uploading infringing content. I don't necessarily agree you should be taken away from your home-country because of that, seems relatively minor in the grand scale of things, but he was hardly "just sharing songs on the internet".
- throwaway48540 2y agoHe shared a lot of them. Still absolutely not something that should lead to this multiple-state sanctioned response.
- diggan 2y agoAgree, disproportionate response for sure. Still, flagrantly ignoring the law will get you in trouble.
- abdulobdul 2y ago[flagged]
- BiteCode_dev 2y agoGetting in the way of powerful people getting more power is always punished more harshly than anything else, including murder. In this case, he annoyed powerful IP owners, and those people in our current society are as powerful as they get.
- 2y ago
- A4ET8a8uTh0 2y agoWhile I don't disagree with the idea behind the post, Kim is not exactly small fry. He is not as big as he once was, but he seems to be doing well money-wise.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoI wish people wouldn't cheer when criminals evade accountability.
- GrumpyNl 2y agoFirst we have to agree on whats a criminal.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoSure. I propose...a trial.
- immibis 2y agoKangaroo court it is. We say you're a movie pirate, so you are one. Life in prison for you. ...that is a summary of Kim's trial. Movie companies own the government.
- philippejara 2y agoIs that going to be a trial by the laws of the land he resides in and not to a foreign country that the defendant is not a citizen nor a resident nor operates out of and that refuses to guarantee the same protections under the law to a non-citizen compared to a citizen[1]? This same foreign country who passed laws for invading the hague if they came under trial for crimes in the ICC. [1]: See assange's bid for first amendment's guarantees when the same foreign country was trying to extradite and "trial" him
- SpicyLemonZest 2y agoHe moved to New Zealand after much of the alleged criminal conduct, in a deal where he was pretty explicitly buying residency to the point that immigration authorities tried to keep it a secret. (https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6547471/Secrecy-over-Dotcoms-residency-application https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6547471/Secrecy-over-...)
- preisschild 2y ago"the state" is made up by normal people. And in this case the state is just protecting normal people from criminals like Dotcom.
- BeFlatXIII 2y agoHow exactly are they protecting me?
- nxicvyvy 2y agoJust like trump eh? Is everyone you don't like a Russian spy?
- EB-Barrington 2y ago[dead]
- dubcanada 2y agoLet's not read past the words written on the screen now. No reason to bring Trump into the conversation at all.
- enriquec 2y ago[flagged]
- blooalien 2y ago[flagged]
- dubcanada 2y agoWhere in the article is Trump mentioned? The article is about extraditing a person, who could just fly to a USA country that doesn't have a extradition pact, such as Russia or China. Dotcom has been saying pro Russia war things on twitter, which is easy to read. So OPs comment is consistent with the theme of the article. Equating it to possible Trump Russia connections however has nothing to do with the article.
- enriquec 2y agowhat a bad stretch. You have no intellectual honesty. Kim has also said Trump things on twitter and we've spent literal billions on fake Russia-Trump in the last few years. And here is someone baselessly pushing Kim-Russia. Anyways, good luck on your weird mission to police any mentioning of Trump. Pretty dumb IMO
- 2y ago
- colpabar 2y ago[flagged]
- finikytou 2y agosad to see that kind of comments in HN. I feel that 10 years ago there was more room for accepting that a political opponent should be free to speak up. now our educated masses are pushing for prison and extradition because they don't belong to the axis of good.... you def cannot be for opensource and its values and say things like that
- herculity275 2y agoThe comment you're responding to just speculates that he will escape to Russia based on his (very consistent) views and activism, there's no suggestion that he should go to prison because of them.
- finikytou 2y ago[flagged]
- herculity275 2y ago> there is definitly a suggestion and I would even say more than that. the OP comment literaly says he is on the payroll of russia lol Being on Russian payroll is not a criminal offense, there are plenty of RT-affiliated journalists who still operate in the West.
- retinaros 2y agolol. please stop. we know what being on a russian payroll means. just like we knew irak didnt have weapons of mass destruction. you tell yourself the lies because you know once the truth will come out there will be other matters to tend
- philippejara 2y agoThe comment he's responding to speculates that he is being paid by russia to post on twitter, as if people couldn't come to their own conclusions based on their own views and their own biases, which are very very strong against the US if you're Kim Dotcom with good reason.
- cactusplant7374 2y agoI'm not a fan but do you have real proof of this conspiracy theory? It's very popular to accuse people of being on Russia's payroll now. Rather unfortunately it dumbs down the movement to hold Russia responsible for invading Ukraine.
- DSingularity 2y agoAh yes, the classic. Everybody who opposes american foreign policy is labeled. Tweet about opposing the genocide in gaza? Oh dont listen to him -- he is pro khamas. Tweet about opposing war in ukraine arguing that NATO is outdated and not in the interest of Ukrainians? Oh pay no attention to him -- he is on the communist payroll. I understand when leaders in politics or industry make these character-assasination attacks as they do it for their own interests (political or economical) but why do you do it? Why would normal people throw baseless accusations like this? What is your motivation? What skin do you have in this game? Is your argument really "Kim Dotcom is an agent because he is opposing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and he is against a forever war in Ukraine"? He is presumably some guy that youve never met that happens to be fighting against the US government and its copyright laws so why are you making these comments? Are you so passionate about copyrights because you are an artist that has lost money because of mega? What motivates you?
- snapcaster 2y ago>I understand when leaders in politics or industry make these character-assasination attacks as they do it for their own interests (political or economical) but why do you do it? Thanks for articulating this, similar idea behind my sibling comment. Sadly i think the conclusion is that the vast majority of people are small minded, spiteful, and more or less accept whatever narrative the empire feeds them. Wish it wasn't like this
- kspacewalk2 2y agoI agree that Kim Dotcom is not likely to be on Russia's payroll, but, as you said, he's simply small minded, spiteful, and more or less accept whatever narrative that empire feeds them.
- SXX 2y agoMost likely he just hate US for a good reason and gonna support anything anti-US. In his particular case he probably just needs a country that not gonna extradite him to US no matter how bad the country is. I just seriously doubt that likes of Dotcom, Musk or Trump need to be on Putin payroll. They just all have their own agenda to sell "strong russia, good putin" narrative.