Dotcom facing financial 'battle' despite delayed case

Kim Dotcom in court for his extradition hearing. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

Kim Dotcom's lawyer says he's happy a judge in Virginia has delayed a civil lawsuit against the embattled tech mogul but that Dotcom and his former Megaupload team still face financial strangulation.

Federal judge Liam O'Grady in the Eastern District of Virginia has approved a request for a stay, filed in the case the Recording Industry Association of America brought against Dotcom.

"I definitely think it's the right decision," Dotcom's lawyer Ron Mansfield said this morning. "But it doesn't provide any interim relief in the meantime for us as far the funding restrictions are concerned.

"So we still have to battle on trying to defend the US claim without any resources to call the necessary experts..."

Mr Mansfield said he would raise the issue in Auckland District Court today. An extradition hearing started there last week.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) also brought a civil case against Dotcom.

Mr Mansfield believed it was "highly likely" Judge O'Grady would also order the MPAA case to be delayed.

"It's consistent with what we do here. If there are allegations of a criminal nature being made, then the civil allegations wait, and are heard behind that."

Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato were indicted on 13 charges including copyright infringement, racketeering, money laundering and fraud.

The FBI laid charges in January 2012.

In an earlier case, Van der Kolk's legal counsel Grant Illingworth QC said the United States allowed confiscated funds to pay for New Zealand legal resources, but the Megaupload group could not spend it on expert witnesses outside the country.