21 Jan 2018

Dotcom seeks millions in damages

4:52 pm on 21 January 2018

A lawyer for the internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom says he has filed papers seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from the government over an erroneous arrest warrant.

Kim Dotcom leaving court in 2015.

Kim Dotcom leaving court in 2015. Photo: AFP

The papers accuse the government of pursuing an erroneous arrest warrant with malice, and without proper legal disclosure.

Mr Dotcom is claiming damages for lost profits and business opportunities, legal costs and loss of reputation.

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General David Parker said the government had not yet been served with the papers.

Mr Dotcom, who is charged with copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering, is fighting extradition to the US where the case would be heard.

On January 20 2012, Mr Dotcom and three associates were arrested in a the raid, in which over 70 heavily armed officers descended on his mansion near Auckland at the request of the United States.

He was married yesterday, on the sixth anniversary of the police raid on his mansion at Coatesville.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spent the afternoon in the Wairarapa town Martinborough, where the Labour Party caucus is meeting.

She said the government had not yet been served papers on the matter, but she was not too concerned.

"This has obviously been an ongoing matter, so no it doesn't surprise me," she said.

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