Megaupload Founder Discovered in New Zealand Safe Room With Gun
In a dramatic, digital-age stand-off that played like a scene from a Hollywood thriller, dozens of New Zealand police backed by helicopters swarmed the barricaded mansion of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom to arrest him on Friday for Internet copyright theft.
Police had to cut their way through electronic locks to a safe room, where they discovered Dotcom - also known as Kim Schmitz - with a firearm.
Also read: Megaupload Charged With Piracy in One of Largest Copyright Cases in History
“Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic-locking mechanisms,” Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organized and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand told Reuters.
Dotcom, who according to the FBI has made $42 million from pirated materials in 2010 alone, has been charged with operating a criminal enterprise that distributes intellectual property in what U.S. authorities are labeling one of the largest copyright cases in history.