Kim Dotcom loses 12-year fight to halt deportation to face US copyright case

Kim Dotcom speaks during an intelligence and security select committee hearing at parliament in July 2013 in Wellington, New Zealand (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

Kim Dotcom, founder of the once wildly popular file-sharing website Megaupload, lost a 12-year fight this week to halt his deportation from New Zealand to the US on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

New Zealand’s justice minister Paul Goldsmith divulged on Friday that he had decided Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial, capping – for now – a drawn-out legal fight.