Dotcom Extradition Hearing Rescheduled for April 2014

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—An extradition hearing for Megaupload founder and current Mega operator Kim Dotcom, which has already been delayed several times and was supposed to take place November 21, has been moved to April of next year, according to 3News. "Dotcom and his co-accused were arrested in January, 2012 but the case against him has been bogged down by legal argument after it was revealed police botched the raid's search warrant and New Zealand's spy agency the GCSB illegally spied on Dotcom, a German who had become resident in New Zealand," the station reported. "The US is trying to extradite Dotcom, Finn Batato, Bram van der Kolk and Mathias Ortmann over allegations their Megaupload website netted more than $US175 million ($NZ210.3m) in criminal proceeds," it added. Megaupload was shuttered by U.S. authorities at the time of Dotcom's arrest, but as AVN reported last year, the extradition process has hit serious roadblocks because of alleged improprieties by American and New Zealand authorities. In the meantime, Dotcom founded a new file-sharing service called Mega in January of this year. Yesterday, in fact, PCWorld reported that Mega is now out of beta and sporting new features. In other Dotcom news, a New Zealand government minister was forced to resign in October after it was revealed that he accepted campaign donations from the internet mogul without listing who the donation was from, a violation of the country's Electoral Act. "John Banks resigned on Wednesday as minister for regulatory reform and small business after the Auckland district court ordered him to stand trial over allegations of electoral fraud relating to Dotcom’s NZ$50,000 ($44,144) donation," reported The Guardian.