Dotcom's claims don't have 'an air of reality' - Judge

Internet millionaire Kim Dotcom has lost his appeal. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Claims by internet mogul Kim Dotcom of a conspiracy between the United States and New Zealand Governments do not have "an air of reality", a High Court judge has ruled.

In a decision released today, Justice Simon France upheld a previous court ruling not to order Government agencies to release all the information they hold on the Mega founder to help him with his extradition battle.

His lawyers had argued last month that a judicial review should be conducted on Government agencies withholding and redacting files requested by Dotcom and his legal team to decide whether they were legitimately withheld.

It was relevant to his extradition process because previous files had been withheld and later released which showed "political pressure" in the granting of permanent residency to Dotcom, his lawyers argued.

They claimed Immigration New Zealand approved his application despite his previous convictions and despite the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) informing it of a possible FBI investigation.

The internet Party founder says this was part of a ploy by US authorities to keep him in New Zealand in order to monitor his activities and later extradite him when charges were filed against him. The US wants Dotcom extradited to face piracy charges in relation to his now defunct file-sharing website MegaUpload.

However, Justice France said "an air of reality" was not established.

"It is, as the District Court held, all supposition and the drawing of links without a basis," he said.

"Nothing suggests involvement of the United States of America, and nothing suggests the New Zealand Government had turned its mind to extradition issues. These are the key matters and there is no support for either contention."

Justice France also said the evidence in relation to the granting of residency was "far from immediately compelling".

"The reality is that as a result of the alleged abuse, Mr Dotcom got what he was seeking, permanent residence," he said.

"Further, it was he who created the time pressure by imposing a deadline on when a decision had to be made. It is not easy in these circumstances to see that he is a victim of the alleged abuse."

But Justice France did accept there had been an "error in approach" to some aspects of the original district court decision, but the outcome reached had been "demonstrably correct" and Dotcom and his co-accused had not been disadvantaged.

He dismissed Dotcom's application for a judicial review.

A number of major Hollywood movie studios claim MegaUpload and its key operators "facilitated, encouraged, and profited from massive copyright infringement of movies and television shows" before it was shut down in 2012.

They have filed a civil lawsuit in the US against Dotcom, MegaUpload, majority shareholder Vester Ltd, chief technical officer Mathias Ortmann, and programmer Bram van der Kolk.