Kim Dotcom - a genius and a villain who challenged the US government
According to many, Kim Dotcom is one of the gurus of the free Internet. In just a few years, he went from a hacker working from his tiny apartment to a multimillionaire and official enemy of the United States. He openly criticizes the most influential politicians on the planet, spends enormous sums on lawyers, and at the same time lives for his own pleasure and shocks the public with intricate antics.
Kim Dotcom, whose real name is Schmitz, was born on January 21, 1974 in the German city of Kiel. Even at the dawn of digital technology, schoolboy Kim plunged into the abyss of programming and achieved a lot of success in this matter. But the dull work for a large company did not appeal to him. Already in high school, Schmitz took the path of hacking, taking on the nickname “Fugitive.”
The young man caused a lot of trouble for such reputable organizations as the Pentagon and NASA. At the age of 20, Kim was first arrested for stealing confidential information. Since this was the first offense, the guy was not punished severely. After serving a month behind bars, Kim Schmitz was released. Did he know then that the courts would become an integral part of his life?
In the late 90s, Schmitz opened the investment company Kimvestor. Already in 2001, he managed to profitably sell it for $200 million. With the proceeds, Kim purchased the company LetsBuyIt.com, which was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. He became the owner of a controlling stake worth 300 thousand euros and managed to sell them for 5 times more expensive! To do this, he spread a rumor that some investors were planning to buy his business for 50 million. The trick worked, the shares were quickly sold out, and Kim earned 1.5 million euros.
To be fair, it should be said that Schmitz spent money not only on himself. He invested in useful projects, one of which was the Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism fund. The organization financed hackers who tracked terrorists online and attacked their Internet resources. Schmitz promised to pay 10 million euros for information about Osama bin Laden.
After the fraud with the LetsBuyIt.com papers, Schmitz’s quiet life ended forever. He was wanted in the United States and in several other countries, where he managed to carry out other cunning schemes. The hacker had to go to Thailand, but they caught him there too. The schemer was arrested and extradited to Germany. There Kim was tried again and sent to prison for 5 months. After serving his sentence, he immediately left for Hong Kong.
There he launched a new project - he created the Megaupload file sharing service. To date, this is Schmitz's main brainchild, which made him first fantastically rich and then bankrupt. The service was positioned as a platform for free and open exchange of information. This fact has strained not only the creators of video and audio content, but also many intelligence agencies. Having started a new business, he changes his name and turns from Kim Schmitz to Kim Dotcom.
Megaupload quickly became popular. In 2012, the FBI checked the file sharing service and, to its horror, learned that its audience reached 50 million people a day. The site generated up to 4 percent of the world's Internet traffic! Of course, the server was full of everything, from pirated copies of films and games to dubious files that were stored there by villains of all stripes and nationalities.
US authorities began looking for the nimble Kim, but he had long since settled in New Zealand. Internet business brought him huge income and Dotcom enjoyed life. He purchased an estate near Auckland for €30 million and 18 luxury cars. The businessman’s fleet even included the legendary pink 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. Kim threw grand parties attended by hundreds of guests and invited stars.
One day, Dotcom decided to attend the Formula 1 race in Monaco. To do this, he rented a 240-foot yacht for $1 million, on which he and his friends arrived in Europe. Kim himself was not averse to driving on the race track and has been racing his Mercedes Brabus SV12 Megacar since 2001. In addition, the businessman was fond of music and even released several tracks with provocative lyrics.
Kim Dotcom thought he was in no danger. He invested 600 thousand euros in the New Zealand economy, for which he received citizenship of this country. He wasn't too bothered by the fact that he was wanted in Germany and the United States. He drove golf carts around his 25-hectare estate, and to prevent the squeaking of the speed limiter from annoying him, he tore speedometers out of cars.
But in 2013, the US authorities got hold of the fugitive. New Zealand provided the FBI with all the information they needed and Kim's accounts were frozen. From now on, he could only use 20 thousand euros per month, which for him was a ridiculous amount. It is worth considering that Dotcom has 5 children who are completely supported by him.
But Dotcom was not going to lose heart - obviously, he has other sources of income. Parties continued at the Auckland estate, and Kim wrote on social networks:
The US government has declared real war on Kim. One day, his estate was attacked by police in helicopters. All his domains were taken away from him, including the main one - Megaupload.com. Dotcom spends huge sums on lawyers every month as he is accused of causing half a billion dollars in damage to copyright holders. 16 of his 18 cars were confiscated, including the unique Cadillac.
Is Kim Dotcom Sad? Of course no. Just a year after the collapse of the Megaupload empire, he founded the Mega service. The file hosting service started working on January 20, 2013. The media mogul said that he had taken into account the “mistakes of his youth” and would not make them again. All data on the new service is carefully encrypted. In this case, only the owner of the data has the key to the encryption, and even Dotcom itself will not be able to use it. In an interview, he explained the essence of the project as follows:
Kim's struggle with the powers that be is going on with varying degrees of success. Good lawyers can work miracles. One need only say that the New Zealand police’s surveillance of the entrepreneur’s estate was declared illegal. The Prime Minister of New Zealand himself had to apologize to Kim. Of course, Dotcom generously forgave him.