By Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY, July 1 (Reuters) – Kim Dotcom lost his latest appeal on Wednesday to avoid extradition to the United States, where he is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload that he founded.
German-born Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, has been fighting extradition to the United States since 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.
• Dotcom, who is on bail, was appealing a 2024 decision by New Zealand that he be extradited to the U.S. He was 50 that year.
• New Zealand’s Court of Appeal found on Wednesday there was no legal basis to block his extradition to the U.S., according to a copy of the judgment.
• Dotcom has one final route to appeal the ruling, through the country’s top court, the Supreme Court.
• Dotcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment via his lawyer on Wednesday.
• U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material, which generated more than $175 million in revenue for the website.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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