GENERAL ALLEGATIONS At all times relevant to this Indictment: 1. KIM
DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN
BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM,
and BRAM VAN DER KOLK, the defendants, and others known and unknown to
the Grand Jury, were members of the “Mega
Conspiracy,” a worldwide criminal organization whose members
engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a
massive scale with estimated harm to copyright holders well in excess
of $500,000,000 and reported income in excess of $175,000,000. 2.
Megaupload.com is a commercial website and service operated by the Mega
Conspiracy that reproduces and distributes copies of popular
copyrighted content over the Internet without authorization. Since at
least September 2005, Megaupload.com has been used by the defendants
and other members and associates of the Mega Conspiracy to willfully
reproduce and distribute many millions of infringing copies of
copyrighted works, including motion pictures, television programs,
musical recordings, electronic books, images, video games, and other
computer software. Over the more than five years of its existence, the
Mega Conspiracy has aggressively expanded its operations into a large
number of related Internet businesses, which are connected directly to,
or at least financially dependent upon, the criminal conduct associated
with Megaupload.com. 3. Megaupload.com was at one point in its history
estimated to be the 13th most
frequently visited website on the entire Internet. The site claims to
have had more than one billion visitors in its history, more than
180,000,000 registered users to date, an average of
2
50 million daily visits, and to account for approximately four percent
of the total traffic on the Internet. 4. Megaupload.com’s
income comes primarily from two sources: premium
subscriptions and online advertising. Premium subscriptions for
Megaupload.com have been available for online purchase for as little as
a few dollars per day or as much as approximately $260 for a lifetime.
In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides the fast
reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works
from its computer servers located around the world. Premium users of
the site, a small percentage of the overall user base, are able to
download and upload files with few, if any, limitations. Subscription
fees collected during the existence of the Mega Conspiracy from premium
users are estimated to be more than $150 million. Online advertising on
Megaupload.com and its associated websites, which is heavily dependent
on the popularity of copyright infringing content to attract website
visits, has further obtained more than $25 million for the Mega
Conspiracy. 5. The financial proceeds of Megaupload.com have been
primarily directed to four
sources. First, the Conspiracy has directed the bulk of its revenues to
the defendants, corporate entities they control, other co-conspirators,
and employees for their private financial gain. Second, the Mega
Conspiracy has spent millions of dollars developing and promoting
Megaupload.com and complementary Internet sites and services, such as
Megavideo.com, Megaclick.com, Megaporn.com, and a host of others
(collectively the “Mega Sites”). Third, for much of
its operation, the Mega Conspiracy has offered an “Uploader
Rewards” Program, which promised premium subscribers
transfers of cash and other financial incentives to upload popular
works, including copyrighted works, to computer servers under the Mega
Conspiracy’s direct control and for the
Conspiracy’s ultimate financial benefit. The more popular
content that was
3
present on Mega Conspiracy servers would increase the number of
visitors and premium users that the Conspiracy could monetize. In
total, the Mega Conspiracy directly paid uploaders millions of dollars
through online payments. Fourth, the Mega Conspiracy spends millions of
dollars per month on the infrastructure supporting their businesses,
including the leasing of computers, hosting charges, and Internet
bandwidth. In contrast to legitimate Internet distributors of
copyrighted content, Megaupload.com does not make any significant
payments to the copyright owners of the many thousands of works that
are willfully reproduced and distributed on the Mega Sites each and
every day. 6. Any Internet user who goes to the Megaupload.com website
can upload a
computer file. Once that user has selected a file on their computer and
clicks the “upload” button, Megaupload.com
reproduces the file on at least one computer server it controls and
provides the uploading user with a unique Uniform Resource Locator
(“URL”) link that allows anyone with the link to
download the file. For example, a link distributed on December 3, 2006
by defendant DOTCOM (www.megaupload.com/?d=BY15XE3V) links to a musical
recording by U.S. recording artist “50 Cent.” A
single click on the link accesses a Megaupload.com download page that
allows any Internet user to download a copy of the file from a computer
server that is controlled by the Mega Conspiracy. 7. Megaupload.com
advertises itself as a “cyberlocker,” which is a
private data
storage provider. However, as part of the design of the service, the
vast majority of Megaupload.com users do not have significant
capabilities to store private content long-term. Unregistered anonymous
users (referred to as “Non-Members” by the
Conspiracy) are allowed to upload and download content files, but any
Non-Member-uploaded content that is not downloaded within 21 days is
permanently deleted. Similarly, registered free users (or
4
“Members”) are allowed to upload and download
content files, but each uploaded file must be downloaded every 90 days
in order to remain on the system. Only premium users have a realistic
chance of having any private long-term storage, 1 since their files are
not regularly deleted due to non-use. In contrast, when any type of
user on Megaupload.com uploads a copy of a popular file that is
repeatedly downloaded, including infringing copies of copyrighted works
available for download, that file remains on Mega Conspiracy-controlled
computers and is available for distribution by anyone who can locate an
active link to the file. 8. Once a user clicks on a link, the user is
generally brought to a download page for
the file. The download page contains online advertisements provided by
the Conspiracy, which means that every download on Megaupload.com
provides a financial gain to the Conspiracy that is directly tied to
the download. The more popular the content, such as copies of
well-known copyrighted works, the more users that find their way to a
Megaupload.com download page; the access of these additional users, in
turn, makes the Mega Conspiracy more money. Because only a small
percentage of Megaupload.com users pay for their use of the systems,
Mega Conspiracy’s business strategy for advertising requires
maximizing the number of online downloads (i.e., distributions of
content), which is also inconsistent with the concept of private
storage. 9. In addition to displaying online advertisements, the
download pages on
Megaupload.com are designed to increase premium subscriptions. All
non-premium users are encouraged to buy a premium subscription to
decrease wait and download times, which can be at
Even then, all users are warned in Megaupload.com’s
“Frequently Asked Questions” and Terms of Service
that they should not keep the sole copy of any file on Megaupload.com
and that users bear all risk of data loss. The Mega
Conspiracy’s duty to retain any data for even a premium user
explicitly ends when either the premium subscription runs out or
Megaupload.com decides, at its sole discretion and without any required
notice, to stop operating. 5
1
least an hour for popular content (and, for some periods of time,
these users have been ineligible to download files over a certain
size). As a result, non-premium users are repeatedly asked by the
Conspiracy to pay for more and faster access to content on
Megaupload.com. Users are also prompted to view videos uploaded to
Megaupload.com directly on a proprietary player designed by the
Conspiracy and offered through the Megavideo.com website and service.
Users have also been asked if they want to generate a new link to the
downloading file and import it to their own Megaupload.com accounts,
which facilitates distribution that is again inconsistent with private
storage. 10. The content available from Megaupload.com is not
searchable on the website,
which allows the Mega Conspiracy to conceal the scope of its
infringement. Instead of hosting a search function on its own site, the
Mega Conspiracy business model purposefully relies on thousands of
third party “linking” sites, which contain
user-generated postings of links created by Megaupload.com (as well as
those created by other Mega Sites, including Megavideo.com and
Megaporn.com). While the Conspiracy may not operate these third party
sites, the Mega Conspiracy did provide financial incentives for premium
users to post links on linking sites through the “Uploader
Rewards” program, which ensured widespread distribution of
Megaupload.com links throughout the Internet and an inventory of
popular content on the Mega Conspiracy’s computer servers.
These linking sites, which are usually well organized and easy to use,
promote and direct users to Mega Conspiracy download pages that allow
the reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted
works. 11. Popular linking sites that contained Mega
Conspiracy-generated links include:
ninjavideo.net, megaupload.net, megarelease.net, kino.to, alluc.org,
peliculasyonkis.com, seriesyonkis.com, surfthechannel.com, taringa.net,
thepiratecity.org, and mulinks.com. While
6
several of these websites exclusively offer Megaupload.com links, all
maintained an index of URL links to identified copies of copyrighted
content that were stored on servers directly controlled by the Mega
Conspiracy. 12. The Mega Conspiracy closely monitors the traffic from
linking sites to the Mega
Sites and services. The Conspiracy is aware that linking sites generate
a very high percentage of the millions of visits to its websites and
services each week and provide the Conspiracy direct financial benefits
through advertising revenue and opportunities for new premium
subscriptions. 13. Members of the Mega Conspiracy have knowingly
interacted with users of
linking sites and visited the sites (and associated online forums)
themselves. Specifically, some of the defendants have instructed
individual users how to locate links to infringing content on the Mega
Sites (including recommending specific linking websites). Several of
the defendants have also shared with each other comments from Mega Site
users demonstrating that they have used or are attempting to use the
Mega Sites to get infringing copies of copyrighted content. 14. In
contrast to the public who is required to significantly rely on third
party
indexes, members of the Conspiracy have full access to the listings of
actual files that are stored on their servers (as well as the
Megaupload.com- and Megavideo.com- and Megaporn.comgenerated links to
those files). Conspirators have searched the internal database for
their associates and themselves so that they may directly access
copyright-infringing content on servers leased by the Mega Conspiracy.
15. Though the public-facing Megaupload.com website itself does not
allow searches,
it does list its “Top 100 files”, which includes
motion picture trailers and software trials that are freely available
on the Internet. The Top 100 list, however, does not actually portray
the most
7
popular downloads on Megaupload.com, which makes the website appear
more legitimate and hides the popular copyright-infringing content that
drives its revenue. 16. If a user uploads a video file to
Megaupload.com, the user can utilize the provided
URL link to redirect others to another Mega Conspiracy-controlled
website, Megavideo.com, where they can view the file using a
“Flash” video player. Alternatively, a user who
hosts a personal or commercial website can embed the Megavideo.com
player into their own website to display the video file (and provide
advertising content from the Mega Conspiracy). Megavideo.com has been
estimated to be as popular as the 52nd most frequently visited website
on the entire Internet. 17. A non-premium user is limited to watching
72 minutes of any given video on
Megavideo.com at a time, which, since nearly all commercial motion
pictures exceed that length, provides a significant incentive for users
who are seeking infringing copies of motion pictures to pay the Mega
Conspiracy a fee for premium access. Some premium users are, therefore,
paying the Mega Conspiracy directly for access to infringing copies of
copyrighted works. 18. Before any video can be viewed on Megavideo.com,
the user must view an
advertisement. Originally, the Mega Conspiracy had contracted with
companies such as adBrite, Inc., Google AdSense, and PartyGaming plc
for advertising. Currently, the Conspiracy’s own advertising
website, Megaclick.com, is used to set up advertising campaigns on all
the Mega Sites. The high traffic volume on the Conspiracy websites
allows the Conspiracy to charge advertisers up-front and at a higher
rate than would be achieved by the percentage-per-click methodology
used by other popular Internet advertising companies. The popularity of
the infringing content on the Mega Sites has generated more than $25
million in online advertising revenues for the Conspiracy.
8
19.
Like Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com conceals many of the infringing
copies of
popular copyrighted videos that are available on and distributed by the
site and the associated service. Megavideo.com does purport to provide
both browse and search functions, but any user’s search on
Megavideo.com for a full length copyrighted video (which can be
downloaded from a Mega Conspiracy-controlled server somewhere in the
world) will not produce any results. Similarly, browsing the front page
of Megavideo.com does not show any obviously infringing copies of any
copyrighted works; instead, the page contains videos of news stories,
usergenerated videos, and general Internet videos in a manner
substantially similar to Youtube.com. 2 Browsing the most-viewed videos
in the Entertainment category on Megavideo.com, however, has at times
revealed a number of infringing copies of copyrighted works that are
available from Mega Conspiracy-controlled servers and are amongst the
most viewed materials being offered. 20. Members of the Conspiracy have
publicly stated that they operate the Mega Sites
in compliance with the notice and takedown provisions of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified at
Title 17, United States Code, Section 512, despite the fact that they
are violating its provisions. Internet providers gain a safe harbor
under the DMCA from civil copyright infringement suits in the United
States if they meet certain criteria. The members of Mega Conspiracy do
not meet these criteria 3 because they are willfully infringing
copyrights themselves on these systems; have actual knowledge that the
materials on their systems are Members of the Mega Conspiracy
purposefully copied content directly from Youtube.com in order to
populate Megavideo.com’s content servers. Furthermore, the
safe harbor requires that an eligible provider have an agent designated
with the U.S. Copyright Office to receive infringement notices; despite
having millions of users in the United States since at least the
beginning of the Conspiracy, the Conspiracy did not designate such an
agent until October 15, 2009, years after Megaupload.com and many of
its associated sites had been operating and the DMCA had gone into
effect. 9
3 2
infringing (or alternatively know facts or circumstances that would
make infringing material apparent); receive a financial benefit
directly attributable to copyright-infringing activity where the
provider can control that activity; and have not removed, or disabled
access to, known copyright infringing material from servers they
control. 21. Members of the Mega Conspiracy negotiated the use of an
“Abuse Tool” with
some major U.S. copyright holders to purportedly remove
copyright-infringing material from Mega Conspiracy-controlled servers.
The Abuse Tool allowed copyright holders to enter specific URL links to
copyright infringing content of which they were aware, and they were
told by the Conspiracy that the Mega Conspiracy’s systems
would then remove, or disable access to, the material from computer
servers the Conspiracy controls. The Mega Conspiracy’s Abuse
Tool did not actually function as a DMCA compliance tool as the
copyright owners were led to believe. 22. When a file is being uploaded
to Megaupload.com, the Conspiracy’s automated
system calculates a unique identifier for the file (called a
“MD5 hash”) that is generated using a mathematical
algorithm. If, after the MD5 hash calculation, the system determines
that the uploading file already exists on a server controlled by the
Mega Conspiracy, Megaupload.com does not reproduce a second copy of the
file on that server. Instead, the system provides a new and unique URL
link to the new user that is pointed to the original file already
present on the server. If there is more than one URL link to a file,
then any attempt by the copyright holder to terminate access to the
file using the Abuse Tool or other DMCA takedown request will fail
because the additional access links will continue to be available. 23.
The infringing copy of the copyrighted work, therefore, remains on the
Conspiracy’s systems (and accessible to at least one member
of the public) as long as a single
10
link remains unknown to the copyright holder. The
Conspiracy’s internal reference database tracks the links
that have been generated by the system, but duplicative links to
infringing materials are neither disclosed to copyright holders, nor
are they automatically deleted when a copyright holder either uses the
Abuse Tool or makes a standard DMCA copyright infringement takedown
request. During the course of the Conspiracy, the Mega Conspiracy has
received many millions of requests (through the Abuse Tool and
otherwise) to remove infringing copies of copyrighted works and yet the
Conspiracy has, at best, only deleted the particular URL of which the
copyright holder complained, and purposefully left the actual
infringing copy of the copyrighted work on the Mega
Conspiracy-controlled server and any other access links completely
intact. 24. In addition to copyrighted files, other types of illicit
content have been uploaded
onto the Megaupload.com servers, including child pornography and
terrorism propaganda videos. Members of the Conspiracy have indicated
to each other that they can automatically identify and delete such
materials on all of their servers by calculating MD5 hash values of
known child pornography or other illicit content, searching the system
for these values, and eliminating them; in fact, such files with
matching hash values have been deleted from the Mega
Conspiracy’s servers. Members of the Mega Conspiracy have
failed to implement a similar program to actually delete or terminate
access to copyright infringing content. 25. On or about June 24, 2010,
members of the Mega Conspiracy were informed,
pursuant to a criminal search warrant from the U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of Virginia, that thirty-nine infringing copies of
copyrighted motion pictures were present on their leased servers at
Carpathia Hosting, a hosting company headquartered in the Eastern
District of Virginia. A member of the Mega Conspiracy informed several
of his co-conspirators at that time
11
that he located the named files using internal searches of their
systems. As of November 18, 2011, more than a year later, thirty-six of
the thirty-nine infringing motion pictures were still being stored on
the servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy. 26. At all times
relevant to this Indictment, the defendants and other members of the
Mega Conspiracy knew that they did not have license, permission,
authorization, or other authority from owners of hundreds of thousands
of copyrighted works to reproduce and distribute those works, including
making them available over the Internet. Members of the Mega Conspiracy
are aware of the way that their sites are actually used by others; have
themselves used the systems to upload, as well as reproduce and
distribute, infringing copies of copyrighted content; and are aware
that they have financially benefitted directly from the infringement of
copyrighted works that they are in a position to control. 27. In
addition to Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com, and Megaclick.com, the other
websites created and domains owned by the Mega Conspiracy include:
Megaworld.com; Megalive.com; Megapix.com; Megacar.com; Megafund.com;
Megakey.com; Megaking.com; Megahelp.com; Megagogo.com; Megamovie.com;
Megaporn.com; Megabackup.com; Megapay.com; Megabox.com; and
Megabest.com. Several of these additional sites have also hosted
infringing copies of copyrighted works. The websites and services, as
well as the domains themselves, have been facilitated and promoted by
illicit proceeds from the operations of Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com,
and Megaclick.com. 28. In addition to MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR
LIMITED, Megamedia
Limited, Megavideo Limited, Megarotic Limited, Megapix Limited, Kingdom
International Ventures Limited, Netplus International Limited LLC,
Basemax International Limited, and Mindpoint International Limited LLC,
the following companies and entities have facilitated and
12
promoted the Mega Conspiracy’s operations: Kimvestor
Limited; Trendax Limited; Monkey Limited; Kimpire Limited; A Limited;
N1 Limited; RNK Media Company; Megapay Limited; Megamusic Limited; Finn
Batato Kommunikation; Mega Services Europe Ltd.; Megateam Limited;
Megastuff Limited; Megacard Inc.; Megasite Inc.; Seventures Limited;
SECtravel; and Bramos B.V. In addition, the creation and operation of
these companies and entities has been facilitated and promoted by
illicit proceeds from the operations of the Mega Conspiracy. THE
DEFENDANTS 29. KIM DOTCOM, who has also been known as KIM SCHMITZ and
KIM TIM
JIM VESTOR, is a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand, and a dual
citizen of Finland and Germany. DOTCOM is the founder of MEGAUPLOAD
LIMITED (“MUL”) and Megamedia Limited
(“MMG”). Until on or about August 14, 2011, DOTCOM
was the Chief Executive Officer for MUL, and he is currently
MUL’s Chief Innovation Officer. As the head of the Mega
Conspiracy, DOTCOM employs more than 30 people residing in
approximately nine countries. From the onset of the Mega Conspiracy
through to the present, DOTCOM has supervised the development of the
websites and companies utilized in the Mega Conspiracy. DOTCOM directed
the creation of the network infrastructure behind the Mega Conspiracy
websites, negotiated contracts with Internet Service Providers and
advertisers, administered the domain names used by the Mega Conspiracy,
and exercises ultimate control over all decisions in the Mega
Conspiracy. DOTCOM has arranged millions of dollars in payments for the
computer servers utilized by the MUL and MMG properties around the
world, and has also distributed proceeds of the Conspiracy to his
co-conspirators. DOTCOM is the director and sole shareholder of both
VESTOR LIMITED and Kingdom International Ventures Limited, which have
been used to hold his ownership interests in MUL- and MMG- related
properties; for
13
example, DOTCOM owns approximately 68% of Megaupload.com,
Megaclick.com, and Megapix.com, and 100% of the registered companies
behind Megavideo.com, Megaporn.com, and Megapay.com, through VESTOR
LIMITED. DOTCOM has personally distributed a link to a copy of a
copyrighted work on, and has received at least one infringing copy of a
copyrighted work from, the Mega Sites. Additionally, on numerous
instances, DOTCOM received DMCA copyright infringement takedown notices
from third-party companies. In calendar year 2010 alone, DOTCOM
received more than $42 million from the Mega Conspiracy. 30. MEGAUPLOAD
LIMITED is the registered owner of Megaupload.com, the
primary website operated by the Mega Conspiracy, and Megaclick.com, a
site that offers advertising associated with Mega Conspiracy
properties. MUL is a registered company in Hong Kong with a registry
number of 0835149. MUL has a number of bank accounts in Hong Kong that
have been used to facilitate the operations of the Mega Conspiracy.
DOTCOM, in addition to holding the title of Chief Executive Officer of
MUL until as recently as August 2011, owns, through VESTOR LIMITED,
approximately 68% of the shares of MUL; MATHIAS ORTMANN, through
Netplus International Limited LLC, owns an additional 25%; JULIUS
BENCKO, through Basemax International Limited, owns 2.5%; BRAM VAN DER
KOLK utilizes Mindpoint International Limited LLC to hold 2.5% of the
shares of MUL; SVEN ECHTERNACH owns approximately 1%; and the remaining
1% is owned by an investor in Hong Kong. 31. VESTOR LIMITED is a
registered company in Hong Kong with a registry
number of 0994358. VESTOR LIMITED has a DBS Bank account in Hong Kong
that has been used to facilitate the operations of the Mega Conspiracy.
DOTCOM (under the alias KIM TIM JIM VESTOR) is the sole director and
shareholder of VESTOR LIMITED, and thus is
14
effectively the sole director and 68% owner of MUL, Megaupload.com,
Megaclick.com, and Megapix.com. DOTCOM is the sole director of, and
VESTOR LIMITED is the sole shareholder of, MMG, which is the parent
company and sole shareholder of the following companies: Megavideo
Limited (which is the registered owner of Megavideo.com), Megarotic
Limited (which is the registered owner of Megaporn.com), and Megapay
Limited. VESTOR LIMITED is also the sole owner of Megaworld.com. 32.
FINN BATATO is both a citizen and resident of Germany. BATATO is the
Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for Megaupload.com and other Mega
Conspiracy properties. Specifically, BATATO is in charge of selling
advertising space, primarily through Megaclick.com. BATATO supervises a
team of approximately ten sales people around the world. The purpose of
the sales team is to increase the advertising revenue in localized
markets by targeting certain advertisements in certain countries.
BATATO handles advertising customers on the Megaclick.com website and
approves advertising campaigns for Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com, and
Megaporn.com. BATATO has personally distributed a link to at least one
infringing copy of a copyrighted work to a Mega Site. Additionally, on
numerous instances, BATATO received DMCA copyright infringement
takedown notices from third-party companies. In calendar year 2010,
BATATO received more than $400,000 from the Mega Conspiracy. 33. JULIUS
BENCKO is both a citizen and resident of Slovakia. BENCKO is the
Graphic Director for MUL and MMG. BENCKO, as the director and sole
shareholder of Basemax International Limited, is effectively a 2.5%
shareholder of MUL. From the onset of the Conspiracy through to the
present, BENCKO has been the lead graphic designer of the
Megaupload.com and other Mega Conspiracy websites. He has designed the
Megaupload.com
15
logos, the layouts of advertisement space, and the integration of the
Flash video player. BENCKO has requested and received at least one
infringing copy of a copyrighted work as part of the Mega Conspiracy.
In calendar year 2010, BENCKO received more than $1 million from the
Mega Conspiracy. 34. SVEN ECHTERNACH is both a citizen and resident of
Germany.
ECHTERNACH is the Head of Business Development for MMG and MUL.
ECHTERNACH is a 1% shareholder in MUL. ECHTERNACH leads the Mega Team
company, registered in the Philippines, which is tasked with removing
illegal or abusive content from the Mega Conspiracy websites, reviewing
advertising campaigns for inappropriate content, and responding to
customer support e-mails. Additionally, ECHTERNACH handles the Mega
Conspiracy’s relationships with electronic payment
processors, accounting firms, and law firms. His activities include
traveling and approaching companies for new business ventures and
services. Additionally, on numerous instances, ECHTERNACH received DMCA
copyright infringement takedown notices from third-party companies. In
calendar year 2010, ECHTERNACH received more than $500,000 from the
Mega Conspiracy. 35. MATHIAS ORTMANN is a citizen of Germany and a
resident of both Germany
and Hong Kong. ORTMANN is the Chief Technical Officer, co-founder, and
a director of MUL. ORTMANN, as the director and sole shareholder of
Netplus International Limited LLC, effectively owns 25% of the shares
of MUL. From the onset of the Conspiracy through to the present,
ORTMANN has overseen software programmers that developed the Mega
Conspiracy’s websites, and has handled technical issues with
the ISPs. His particular areas of responsibility include setting up new
servers, sending and responding to equipment service requests, and
problem solving connectivity problems with the Mega Conspiracy
websites. Additionally, on
16
numerous occasions, ORTMANN received DMCA copyright infringement
takedown notices from other conspirators and third-party companies.
ORTMANN also had authority to distribute funds from one of the
Conspiracy’s main financial accounts. ORTMANN has received a
link to a copy of a copyrighted work associated with the Mega
Conspiracy. In calendar year 2010 alone, ORTMANN received more than $9
million from the Mega Conspiracy. 36. ANDRUS NOMM is a citizen of
Estonia and a resident of both Turkey and
Estonia. NOMM is a software programmer and Head of the Development
Software Division for MUL. NOMM is responsible for the technical
aspects of Megaclick.com. NOMM develops new projects, tests code, and
provides routine maintenance for the site. Additionally, NOMM provides
web coding assistance to various projects on other Mega Conspiracy
websites. Such projects have included testing high definition video on
Megavideo.com, installing the thumbnail screen captures for uploaded
videos, and transferring still images across the various Mega
Conspiracy website platforms. NOMM has accessed at least one infringing
copy of a copyrighted work from a computer associated with the Mega
Conspiracy. In calendar year 2010, NOMM received more than $100,000
from the Mega Conspiracy. 37. BRAM VAN DER KOLK, who has also been
known as BRAMOS, is a resident
of both the Netherlands and New Zealand. VAN DER KOLK is a Dutch
citizen. VAN DER KOLK is the “Programmer-in-Charge”
for MUL and MMG. VAN DER KOLK, as the director and sole shareholder of
Mindpoint International Limited LLC, effectively owns 2.5% of the
shares of MUL. From the onset of the Conspiracy through to the present,
VAN DER KOLK has overseen programming on the Mega Conspiracy websites,
as well as the underlying network infrastructure. VAN DER KOLK is also
responsible for responding to DMCA copyright infringement takedown
notices sent to Mega Conspiracy sites. Lastly, VAN DER KOLK
17
oversaw the selection of featured videos that were posted onto
Megavideo.com, and he was previously in charge of the rewards program.
VAN DER KOLK has personally uploaded multiple infringing copies of
copyrighted works to Internet sites associated with the Mega Conspiracy
and has searched servers controlled by the Mega Conspiracy for
infringing copies of copyrighted works at the request of other
co-conspirators, including several of the defendants. In calendar year
2010, VAN DER KOLK received more than $2 million from the Mega
Conspiracy. THIRD-PARTIES 38. Carpathia Hosting (Carpathia.com) is an
Internet hosting provider that is
headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of
Virginia. Carpathia Hosting has access to datacenters in Ashburn,
Virginia; Harrisonburg, Virginia; Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles,
California; and Toronto, Canada. The Mega Conspiracy leases
approximately 25 petabytes 4 of data storage from Carpathia to store
content associated with the Mega Sites. More than 1,000 computer
servers in North America are owned and operated by Carpathia Hosting
for the benefit of the Mega Conspiracy; more than 525 of these computer
servers are currently located in Ashburn, Virginia, which is in the
Eastern District of Virginia. Carpathia Hosting continues to provide
the Mega Conspiracy with leased computers, Internet hosting, and
support services as of the date of this Indictment. 39. Cogent
Communications (Cogentco.com) is a multinational Internet hosting and
bandwidth provider that is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also
has offices and facilities in the Eastern District of Virginia. As one
of the top five global Internet service providers, Cogent
Communications owns and operates 43 datacenters around the world. The
Mega
4
A petabyte is more than 1,000 terabytes, or one million gigabytes. 18
Conspiracy leases approximately thirty-six computer servers in
Washington, D.C. and France from Cogent Communications that are used
for the Mega Sites. Cogent Communications continues to provide the Mega
Conspiracy with leased computers, Internet bandwidth, hosting, and
support services as of the date of this Indictment. 40. Leaseweb
(Leaseweb.com) is a multinational Internet hosting provider that is
headquartered in the Netherlands. Leaseweb has eight datacenters in the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and the United States, including in the
Eastern District of Virginia. More than 630 computer servers in the
Netherlands are owned and hosted by Leaseweb for the benefit of the
Mega Conspiracy, and an additional sixty servers hosted at Leaseweb
were purchased by the Mega Conspiracy in October 2011. Leaseweb
continues to provide the Mega Conspiracy with leased computers,
Internet hosting, and support services as of the date of this
Indictment. 41. PayPal, Inc. (PayPal.com) is a U.S.-based global
e-commerce business allowing
payments and money transfers over the Internet; in fact, PayPal Inc.
indicates that it is involved in approximately 15% of global
e-commerce. The Mega Conspiracy’s PayPal, Inc. account has
been utilized to receive payments from the Eastern District of Virginia
and elsewhere for premium Megaupload.com subscriptions, which have
included fees of $9.99 for monthly subscriptions, $59.99 for yearly
subscriptions, and $199.99 for lifetime subscriptions. The same PayPal,
Inc. account has been used by the Conspiracy to pay Carpathia Hosting
in the United States and Leaseweb in the Netherlands as well as other
operating expenses (including, but not limited to, direct financial
rewards to uploaders of popular content in the Eastern District of
Virginia and elsewhere). From on or about November 25, 2006, through on
or about July 2011, the PayPal, Inc. account for the Mega Conspiracy
has received in excess of $110,000,000 from subscribers and other
persons associated with Mega Conspiracy.
19
42.
Moneybookers Limited (Moneybookers.com) is an United Kingdom-based
global
e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers over the
Internet. The Mega Conspiracy has charged various rates through
Moneybookers Limited for premium subscriptions on its websites,
including €9.99 for monthly subscriptions, €59.99 for
yearly subscriptions, or €199.99 for lifetime subscriptions.
Between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011, the Moneybookers Limited
accounts for the Mega Conspiracy have collected in excess of $5 million
from subscribers of Mega Sites and transferred that money to an account
in Hong Kong associated with the Mega Conspiracy. 43. AdBrite, Inc.
(AdBrite.com) is an online advertising network based in San
Francisco, California. AdBrite, Inc. provides advertisements for over
100,000 Internet sites and is believed to be amongst the top ten
advertising networks on the Internet. From on or about September 2,
2005 until on or about May 24, 2008, AdBrite paid at least $840,000 to
the Mega Conspiracy for advertising. 44. PartyGaming plc is a company
based in the United Kingdom that has operated
PartyPoker.com since 2001. PartyPoker.com has more than 3 million
visitors annually and is one of the largest online poker rooms.
PartyGaming’s advertising contract with the members of the
Mega Conspiracy was initiated on or about November 12, 2009 and has
resulted in payments of more than $3,000,000 to the Conspiracy. This
contract was still active as recently as on or about March 18, 2011.
20
COUNT ONE (18 U.S.C. § 1962(d) – Conspiracy to
Commit Racketeering) THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT: 45. their entirety.
A. 46. THE ENTERPRISE Beginning in at least September 2005 and
continuing until at least the date of this Paragraphs 1 through 44 are
re-alleged and incorporated as if set forth here in
Indictment, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the
defendants, KIM DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN
BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM,
and BRAM VAN DER KOLK and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury,
constituted an “enterprise,” as defined by Title
18, United States Code, Section 1961(4) (hereinafter the
“Enterprise”), that is, a group of individuals and
entities associated in fact. The Enterprise further included all
associated corporations, affiliates, subsidiaries, and entities,
including, but not limited to, those indicated in paragraph 28. The
Enterprise constituted an ongoing organization whose members functioned
as
21
a continuing unit for the common purpose of achieving the objectives
of the Enterprise. This Enterprise was engaged in, and its activities
affected, interstate and foreign commerce. B. 47. THE RACKETEERING
VIOLATION Beginning in at least September 2005 and continuing until at
least the date of this
Indictment, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the
defendants, KIM DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN
BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM,
and BRAM VAN DER KOLK being persons employed by and associated with the
Enterprise, which Enterprise engaged in, and the activities of which
affected interstate and foreign commerce, did knowingly, willfully, and
intentionally combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and
with each other, and with other persons known and unknown to the Grand
Jury, to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c) (hereinafter the
“Racketeering Violation”), that is, to conduct and
participate, directly and indirectly, in the conduct of the affairs of
that Enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity, as that
term is defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961(1) and
(5), involving multiple acts indictable under: a. 18 U.S.C.
§§ 2319(b)(1) & 2319(d)(2); 17 U.S.C.
§§ 506(a)(1)(A) & 506(a)(1)(C) (criminal
copyright infringement); 22
b.
18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(1)(A)(i), 1956(a)(2)(A),
1956(h), 1956(f), and 1957 (money laundering).
C. 48.
PURPOSES OF THE ENTERPRISE The purposes of the Enterprise included the
following: a. Enriching the members and associates of the Enterprise
through, among other things, copyright infringement and money
laundering. b. Promoting, enlarging, and enhancing the Enterprise and
its members’ and associates’ activities.
D. 49.
MEANS AND METHODS OF THE ENTERPRISE Among the means and methods by
which the defendants and their associates
conducted and participated in the conduct of the affairs of the
Enterprise were the following: a. Members of the Enterprise and their
associates criminally infringed copyrights, aided and abetted copyright
infringement, and conspired to infringe copyrights, which affected
interstate and foreign commerce. b. Members of the Enterprise and their
associates committed money laundering, attempted to commit money
laundering, and conspired to commit money laundering to facilitate and
expand the Enterprise’s criminal operations.
(All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d))
23
COUNT TWO (18 U.S.C. § 371 – Conspiracy to Commit
Copyright Infringement) THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT: 50. their
entirety. 51. Beginning in at least September 2005 and continuing until
at least the date of this Paragraphs 1 through 49 are re-alleged and
incorporated as if set forth here in
Indictment, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the
defendants, KIM DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN
BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM,
and BRAM VAN DER KOLK each knowingly and intentionally combined,
conspired, and agreed together and with each other, and with other
persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to: (1) willfully
infringe, for purposes of private financial gain, ten or more copies of
one or more copyrighted works with a total retail value of more than
$2,500 within a 180-day period, in violation of Title 17, United States
Code, Section 506(a)(1)(A) and Title 18, United States Code, Section
2319(b)(1); and (2) willfully infringe, for purposes of private
financial gain, a copyright by the distribution of a work being
prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a
computer network
24
accessible to members of the public, when the defendants knew and
should have known that the work was intended for commercial
distribution, in violation of Title 17, United States Code, Section
506(a)(1)(C) and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2319(d)(2).
Ways, Manner, and Means of the Conspiracy In furtherance of the
Conspiracy, defendants and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury
employed, among others, the following manner and means: 52. It was part
of the Conspiracy that the defendants and their co-conspirators
operated a number of Internet sites and associated services, including
Megaupload.com, Megavideo.com, and Megaclick.com. 53. It was further
part of the Conspiracy that members of the Mega Conspiracy,
including many of the named defendants, willfully reproduced and
distributed infringing copies of copyrighted works using computer
servers controlled by the Conspiracy. 54. It was further part of the
Conspiracy, from at least September 2005 until July
2011, that the Conspiracy provided financial incentives for users to
upload infringing copies of popular copyrighted works. The Conspiracy
made payments to uploaders who were known to have uploaded infringing
copies of copyrighted works. 55. It was further part of the Conspiracy
that members of the Conspiracy generally
did not terminate the user accounts of known copyright infringing
users, when it had the right and ability under its Terms of Service to
do so. 56. It was further part of the Conspiracy that the Conspiracy
made no significant
effort to identify users who were using the Mega Sites or services to
infringe copyrights, to prevent the uploading of infringing copies of
copyrighted materials, or to identify infringing copies of copyrighted
works located on computer servers controlled by the Conspiracy.
25
57.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that the Conspiracy made it more
difficult for
copyright holders to identify repeat infringers by removing the
identity of the infringing file’s uploader from public parts
of the Mega Sites in or about November 2010. 58. It was further part of
the Conspiracy that members of the Conspiracy generally
did not delete infringing copies of copyrighted works from computer
servers that they controlled, even when they were aware of the
infringing material or the removal was specifically requested by the
copyright holder. 59. It was further part of the Conspiracy that
members of the Conspiracy selectively
complied with their obligations to remove any copyrighted materials (or
links thereto) from the computer servers they controlled, and sometimes
deliberately did not remove copyrighted works (or links thereto) when
it would result in a loss of revenue. 60. It was further part of the
Conspiracy that members of the Conspiracy deliberately
misrepresented to copyright holders that they had removed copyright
infringing content from their servers, while, in fact, they only
removed certain links to the content file, which could still be
illegally downloaded through numerous redundant links. Redundant links
were sometimes created by members of the Conspiracy. 61. It was further
part of the Conspiracy that members of the Conspiracy had the
ability to search files that were on the computer systems they
controlled, and purposefully did not provide full and accurate search
results to the public, or, in the case of Megaupload.com, chose not to
provide any search functionality at all in order to conceal the fact
that the primary purpose of the website and service was to reproduce
and distribute infringing copies of copyrighted works for private
financial gain.
26
62.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that the members of the Conspiracy
misrepresented to the Conspiracy’s users and the public the
nature of the files that were contained on the computer servers it
controlled and of the amount of their network bandwidth associated with
infringement. 63. It was further part of the Conspiracy that members of
the Conspiracy reproduced
copyrighted works directly from third-party websites, including from
YouTube.com, to make them available for reproduction and distribution
on Megavideo.com. 64. It was further part of the Conspiracy that
members of the Conspiracy monitored
the public actions of law enforcement regarding large-scale copyright
infringement and took active steps to conceal the copyright-infringing
activities taking place on the Mega Sites. 65. It was further part of
the Conspiracy that the content available on
Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com was provided by known and unknown
members of the Mega Conspiracy, including several of the defendants,
who uploaded infringing copies of copyrighted works onto computer
servers leased by the Mega Conspiracy in North America to further the
reproduction and distribution of copyrighted works; in particular,
copyright infringing content was hosted by the Conspiracy on various
servers in Toronto, Canada; Los Angeles, California; and Ashburn,
Virginia (the last of which is in the Eastern District of Virginia).
66. It was further part of the Conspiracy that content was also
reproduced on and
distributed from computer servers leased or owned by the Mega
Conspiracy in France and the Netherlands. 67. It was further part of
the Conspiracy that the Conspiracy derived a direct
financial benefit from infringement through the advertising that was
placed on the Mega Sites and from “premium”
subscription charges. Between September 2005 and the date of this
27
Indictment, the defendants collectively have received more than $175
million from advertising and subscriptions. 68. It was further part of
the Conspiracy that infringing copies of many thousands of
copyrighted works on Megaupload.com and Megavideo.com were made
available to tens of millions of visitors each day. Overt Acts 69. It
was further part of the Conspiracy that the following acts in
furtherance of and
to effect the objects of the above-described Conspiracy were committed
in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere: a. From at least
November 24, 2006 until at least the date of this Indictment,
infringing copies of copyrighted materials were stored on computer
servers located at Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia, which is in
the Eastern District of Virginia. b. For the 180 days up to and
including the date of this Indictment, members
of the Conspiracy infringed by electronic means, including by means of
the Internet, more than ten copies of one or more copyrighted works
which had a total retail value of more than $2,500 for purposes of
private financial gain. In part, copies of copyright-infringing works
were downloaded by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(“FBI”) and other participating federal agencies
from the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center in
Arlington, Virginia, from computer servers controlled by the Mega
Conspiracy, since approximately March 2010, when federal law
enforcement began their investigation. c. During the course of the
Conspiracy, the Mega Conspiracy has paid more
than $65 million to hosting providers around the world for computer
leasing, hosting, bandwidth, and support services. The amounts of some
of these payments are detailed in Count Three, and
28
incorporated herein by reference. These payments involved the use of
proceeds of criminal copyright infringement to promote the objects of
the conspiracy. d. From at least September 2005 until July 2011, the
Mega Conspiracy
offered and provided financial incentives to its premium subscribers to
upload copies of popular works to Megaupload.com and then distribute
links that provided a download of that file, with a single click, to
anyone on the Internet. Though the “Uploader
Rewards” program warned that the uploading of copyrighted
files would result in disqualification, the Mega Conspiracy rarely, if
ever, terminated the accounts of individuals who posted copyrighted
content. In fact, the Mega Conspiracy affirmatively chose to
financially reward specific uploaders of infringing copies of
copyrighted content, including repeat offenders. e. An early version of
the “Uploader Rewards” program for
Megaupload.com from approximately September 2005 announced:
“Today we are also introducing our ground breaking Uploader
Rewards. Our new reward program pays money and cash prizes to our
uploaders. This makes Megaupload the first and only site on the
Internet paying you for hosting your files. The more popular your files
the more you make.” Directly addressing “file
traders,” the announcement continued: “You deliver
popular content and successful files[.] We provide a power hosting and
downloading service. Let’s team up!” In addition,
the announcement stated: “You must have at least 50000
downloads within 3 months to qualify” and “You must
allow us to list your files & descriptions on our Top 100
pages.” The rewards included “$1 USD Cash per 1000
downloads of your uploaded files”, plus an additional bonus
between $50 to $5,000 for Top 100 “Megauploaders with the
most downloads” during a three-month period, to be paid
through PayPal according to the following ranking: Rank 1: $5,000 USD
Bonus Ranks 2-5: $1,000 USD Bonus 29
Ranks 6-10: $500 USD Bonus Ranks 11-50: $100 USD Bonus Ranks 51-100:
$50 USD Bonus f. A later version of the “Uploader
Rewards” program, available at least as
early as November 2006, offered the following: “For every
download of your files, you earn 1 reward point. * You can redeem your
reward points for premium services and cash[.]” The program
required “a premium membership to qualify for a
payment.” Rewards were paid through PayPal according to the
following reward point totals: 5,000 reward points: One day premium
50,000 reward points: One month premium 100,000 reward points: One year
premium 500,000 reward points: Lifetime platinum + $300 USD 1,000,000
reward points: $1,000 USD 5,000,000 reward points: $10,000 USD g. At
the time of its termination, as recently as July 2011, the
“Uploader
Rewards” program offered rewards according to the following
reward point totals: 10,000 reward points: One month premium membership
50,000 reward points: 6 months premium membership 100,000 reward
points: One year premium + $100 USD 500,000 reward points: Lifetime
platinum + $500 USD 1,000,000 reward points: $1,500 USD 5,000,000
reward points: $10,000 USD h. In approximately April 2006, members of
the Mega Conspiracy copied
videos directly from Youtube.com to make them available on
Megavideo.com. i. On or about April 10, 2006, VAN DER KOLK sent an
e-mail to
ORTMANN asking “Do we have a server available to continue
downloading of the Youtube’s vids? … Kim just
mentioned again that this has really priority.” j. On or
about April 10, 2006, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN indicating “Hope [Youtube.com is] not implementing a
fraud detection system now… * praying *”. 30
k.
On or about April 10, 2006, ORTMANN sent an e-mail to VAN DER
KOLK in reply to the “fraud detection” message
indicating “Even if they did, the usefulness of their
non-popular videos as a jumpstart for Megavideo is limited, in my
opinion.” l. On or about April 10, 2006, VAN DER KOLK sent an
e-mail to
ORTMANN in reply to the “jumpstart for Megavideo”
message indicating that “Well we only have 30% of their
videos yet.. In my opinion it's nice to have everything so we can
descide and brainstorm later how we're going to benefit from
it.” m. On or about May 10, 2006, a member of the Mega
Conspiracy registered
the Internet domain Megaclick.com. n. On or about August 31, 2006, VAN
DER KOLK sent an e-mail to an
associate entitled “lol”. Attached to the message
was a screenshot of a Megaupload.com file download page for the file
“Alcohol 120 1.9.5 3105complete.rar” with a
description of “Alcohol 120, con crack!!!! By
ChaOtiX!”. The copyrighted software “Alcohol
120” is a CD/DVD burning software program sold by
www.alcohol-soft.com. o. On or about November 13, 2006, VAN DER KOLK
sent an e-mail to
another individual that contained 100 Megaupload.com links to
infringing copies of copyrighted musical recordings by the artist Armin
van Buuren. p. On or about November 13, 2006, a member of the Mega
Conspiracy
registered the Internet domain Megavideo.com. q. On or about December
3, 2006, DOTCOM distributed a Megaupload.com
link to a music file entitled
“05-50_cent_feat._mobb_deep-nah-c4.mp3” to ORTMANN.
A copy of this file was still present on servers controlled by the Mega
Conspiracy as of December 20, 2011.
31
r.
On or about February 5, 2007, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN entitled “reward payments”. Attached to the
e-mail was a text file listing the following proposed reward amounts,
the Megaupload.com username, and the content they uploaded: 100 USD 100
USD 100 USD 100 USD 1500 USD [USERNAME DELETED] 10+ Full popular DVD
rips (split files), a few small porn movies, some software with
keygenerators (warez) [USERNAME DELETED] 5845 files in his account,
mainly Vietnamese content [USERNAME DELETED] Popular DVD rips [USERNAME
DELETED] Some older DVD rips + unknown (Italian serries?) rar files
[USERNAME DELETED] known paid user (vietnamese content)
The last individual received at least $55,000 from the Mega Conspiracy
through transfers from PayPal Inc., as part of the “Uploader
Rewards” program. s. On or about February 11, 2007, VAN DER
KOLK sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN indicating that “Kim really wants to copy Youtube one
to one.” t. On or about February 13, 2007, ORTMANN sent an
e-mail to VAN DER
KOLK entitled “my concerns about the thumbnails
table.” In the e-mail, ORTMANN asked VAN DER KOLK to create
“a dummy lifetime premium user,” stating that
“[t]his is very important to prevent the loss of source files
due to expiration or abuse reports.” u. On or about February
21, 2007, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN entitled “2 reward payment files.” Attached
to the e-mail was a file containing Megaupload.com users’
e-mail addresses and reward payments for that time period, which ranged
from $100 to $500. For one user that was paid $300, VAN DER KOLK wrote,
“30849 files, mainly Mp3z, some copyrighted but most of them
have a very small number of downloads per file.” For other
users, all of which were selected for reward payments of $100 by the
Mega Conspiracy, he wrote the following: “Our old famous
number one on MU, still some illegal files 32
but I think he deserves a payment”; “Loads of PDF
files (looks like scanned magazines)”; “looks like
vietnamese DVD rips”; “This user was paid last time
has mainly split RAR files, however more than 50% deleted through abuse
reports.” v. From on or about March 1, 2007, through July 3,
2010, payments totaling
approximately $13 million were transferred in and affecting interstate
and foreign commerce through PayPal, Inc. by a member of the Mega
Conspiracy to WR, the Chief Financial Officer of Carpathia Hosting in
Ashburn, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, for
computer leasing, hosting, and support services. The details of these
payments are described more specifically in Count Three and
incorporated herein by reference. w. From on or about March 2, 2007,
through July 3, 2010, payments totaling
at least $9 million were transferred in and affecting interstate and
foreign commerce through PayPal, Inc. by a member of the Mega
Conspiracy to Leaseweb in the Netherlands for computer leasing,
hosting, and support services. The details of these payments are
described more specifically in Count Three and incorporated herein by
reference. x. On or about April 15, 2007, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN entitled “reward batch payment.” In the
e-mail, VAN DER KOLK stated: “We saved more than half of the
money. Most of the disqualifications were based on fraud (automated
mass downloads). The other disqualifications had very obvious
copyrighted files in their account portfolio, but I was rather flexible
(considering we saved quite a lot on fraud already). Total cost: 5200
USD.” Attached to the e-mail was a file containing the
Megaupload.com users’ e-mail addresses and selected reward
payments for that time period, which ranged from $100 to $1,500.
33
y.
On or about May 17, 2007, a representative from Google AdSense, an
Internet advertising company, sent an e-mail to DOTCOM entitled
“Google AdSense Account Status.” In the e-mail, the
representative stated that “[d]uring our most recent review
of your site [Megaupload.com,]” Google AdSense specialists
found “numerous pages” with links to, among other
things, “copyrighted content,” and therefore Google
AdSense “will no longer be able to work with you.”
The e-mail contains links to specific examples of offending content
located on Megaupload.com. DOTCOM and his conspirators have continued
to operate and financially profit from the Megaupload.com website after
receiving this notice. z. On or about July 1, 2007, the Mega Conspiracy
publicly launched the
Megavideo.com website. aa. On or about August 12, 2007, VAN DER KOLK
sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN regarding a particular file located on Megaupload.com. The file
was a music video, entitled
“soulja_boy-crank_dat_soulja_boy_(superman)-[zGalaxy_Xvid].avi.”
In the e-mail, VAN DER KOLK copied information about the file from the
Megaupload.com internal database, which contains, among other things,
the following: file name; file extension type (e.g., .avi, .jpg, etc.);
file size; date; rank; the file’s 32-digit identification
number, also referred to as a MD5 hash; and the file’s
8-digit download number for use with the Megaupload.com link (for
example, the last eight digits of the following:
www.megaupload.com/?d=BY15XE3V). bb. On or about August 15, 2007,
BENCKO sent VAN DER KOLK an e-mail
message indicating “the sopranos is in French :((( fuck.. can
u pls find me some again ?” cc. On September 29, 2007 and
again on March 11, 2009, a member of the
Mega Conspiracy made transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to PA, a resident of Newport News,
Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of
34
Virginia, as part of the Mega Conspiracy’s
“Uploader Rewards” program. Specifically, this
individual received a transfer of $1,500 on each of these dates from
the Mega Conspiracy (for a total of $3,000). dd. On or about October 4,
2007, BENCKO sent VAN DER KOLK an e-mail
message entitled “pls” requesting “can u
pls get me some links to the series called
‘Seinfeld’ from MU?” ee. On or about
October 18, 2007, BENCKO sent an e-mail to VAN DER
KOLK indicating that “sorry to bother but if you would have a
second to find me some links for the “Grand
Archives” band id be very happy.” On or about the
same day, VAN DER KOLK responded to BENCKO with an e-mail that
contained a Megaupload.com link to a Grand Archives music album with
the statement “That’s all we have. Cheers
mate!” ff. On or about December 11, 2007, a credit card
payment processor e-mailed
ECHTERNACH and VAN DER KOLK regarding “complaints”
that the processor had received from third-parties, including one in
which a third-party stated, “we have pulled over 65 full
videos from Megarotic. That’s $200k in content we paid
for.” In the e-mail, the processor stated, among other
things: “you are not allowed to sell or financially benefit
from the content that is infringing in copyrights on your
site”; and “you are not allowed to continue with
allowing the user to upload content if you can have knowledge of the
infringing of copyright.” DOTCOM responded to the e-mail,
stating “The DMCA quotes you sent me are not relevant. We are
a hosting company and all we do is sell bandwidth and storage. Not
content. All of the content on our site is available for
“free download”.” gg. On or about
December 12, 2007, BATATO distributed a Megaupload.com
link to an infringing copy of the copyrighted music file
“Louis Armstrong – We have all the time
35
in the world.mp3” to DOTCOM. An infringing copy of this
copyrighted work was still present on servers leased by the Mega
Conspiracy as of September 2, 2011. hh. Starting as early as January
27, 2008, a member of the Mega Conspiracy
made multiple transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to CB, a resident of Alexandria,
Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, as part of the
Mega Conspiracy’s “Uploader Rewards”
program. CB received total payments from the Conspiracy of $500,
including transfers of $100 on January 27, 2008; $300 on October 8,
2009; and $100 on February 1, 2010. ii. Starting as early as February
11, 2008, a member of the Mega Conspiracy
made multiple transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to ND, a resident of Falls Church,
Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, as part of the
Mega Conspiracy’s “Uploader Rewards”
program. ND received total payments from the Conspiracy of $900,
including transfers of $100 on February 11, 2008; $100 on March 3,
2008; $300 on March 15, 2008; $100 on March 29, 2008; and $300 on April
15, 2008. jj. On or about July 1, 2008, DOTCOM sent an e-mail to ORTMANN
entitled “[Fwd: Illegal links]”. DOTCOM instructed
him: “Never delete files from private requests like this. I
hope your current automated process catches such cases.” kk.
On or about July 9, 2008, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to a third-
party, entitled “funny chat-log.” In the e-mail,
VAN DER KOLK copied the text of a previous online conversation between
himself and ORTMANN, in which VAN DER KOLK had stated, “we
have a funny business . . . modern days pirates :)” ORTMANN
responded, “we’re not pirates, we’re just
providing shipping services to pirates :)”.
36
ll.
On or about July 18, 2008, DOTCOM sent an e-mail message to
ORTMANN instructing him to list “Mega Manager” as
the “Number 1 dowload” out of the Top 100
Megaupload.com files. mm. On or about August 4, 2008, the Mega
Conspiracy launched their own
advertising company for the Mega Sites called Megaclick.com. nn. On or
about August 11, 2008, DOTCOM requested that the Mega
Conspiracy’s contract with Leaseweb drop a standard clause
requiring contract termination for violations of Leaseweb’s
“Acceptable Use Policy.” oo. On or about September
1, 2008, VAN DER KOLK uploaded an infringing
copy of the copyrighted television program entitled
“BBC.Earth.-.The.Power.Of.The.Planet.5of5.Rare.Earth.XviD.AC3.MVGroup.org.avi”
to Megaupload.com and e-mailed the URL file to another individual. An
infringing copy of this copyrighted work was still present on servers
leased by the Mega Conspiracy as of September 8, 2011. pp. On or about
October 13, 2008, BATATO sent an e-mail to an advertiser,
which included a screen capture of the Megaupload.com download page for
the file “MyBlueBerryNights.part1.rar”. The screen
capture also contained an open browser window to the linking site
www.mulinks.com. qq. On or about October 14, 2008, BATATO sent an
e-mail to an advertiser
that contained two Megaupload.com links. One of the links directed to a
file “DanInRealLife.part2.rar”, which was a portion
of an infringing copy of the copyrighted motion picture “Dan
in Real Life.”
37
rr.
On or about October 25, 2008, VAN DER KOLK uploaded an infringing
copy of a copyrighted motion picture entitled “Taken 2008
DVDRip Repack [A Release Lounge H264 By Micky22].mp4” to
Megaupload.com and e-mailed the URL link for the file to another
individual. An infringing copy of this copyrighted work was still
present as of October 27, 2011,on a server in the Eastern District of
Virginia controlled by the Mega Conspiracy. ss. On or about October 31,
2008, DOTCOM forwarded an e-mail to
ORTMANN from a customer entitled “Sharebee.com” and
stating that “Sharebee.com have uploaded over 1million files
to megaupload in 2008.” ORTMANN responded to DOTCOM that
Sharebee.com was a “multifile hoster upload
service.” Sharebee.com allows the mass distribution of files
to a number of file hosting and distribution services, including
Megaupload.com, and creates clickable links to access that content from
multiple sites. tt. On or about November 17, 2008, DOTCOM forwarded an
e-mail to
ORTMANN from a customer that indicated “I just want to start
of by saying that i love the site, but today i discovered something i
would consider a flawd. I was watching a video of Myth Busters when i
recived a message that said “You have watched 3079 minutes of
video today””. ORTMANN responded to DOTCOM that
this was the correct behavior of the service. uu. On or about November
23, 2008, DOTCOM forwarded an e-mail to
ORTMANN and ECHTERNACH from a non-premium customer that indicated
“i guess we need to find a new hobby because watching pirated
material via megavideo is now over-rated and ruined because of this
video bandwidth limit.” vv. On or about November 23, 2008,
DOTCOM received an e-mail from a
Mega Site user entitled “video problems.” The
e-mail described, “I’ve been trying to watch Dexter
episodes, but… the sound doesn’t match up with the
visual… I didn’t choose to use your
38
site, you seem to dominate episodes 6 and 7 of Dexter on alluc[.org, a
linking site].” DOTCOM forwarded the e-mail to ORTMANN and
wrote, “… on many forums people complain that our
video / sound are not in sync… We need to solve this
asap!” “Dexter” is a copyrighted
television series on the premium cable channel Showtime. ww. On or
about December 5, 2008, NOMM sent VAN DER KOLK an e-mail,
which included a screenshot of NOMM’s account using
Megavideo.com to watch an infringing episode of the copyrighted
television show “Chuck.” The episode in the image,
Season 2 Episode 9, initially aired on December 1, 2008, four days
before the e-mail. xx. On or about January 14, 2009, BATATO sent an
e-mail message to a
Megaupload.com advertiser saying “You can find your banner on
the downloadpages of Megaupload.com. Just choose a link for example
from this site: www.mulinks.com…” yy. On or about
March 3, 2009, DOTCOM sent an e-mail to a reporter
indicating “Whenever a user uploads a new file it is checked
against our database and if we already have the exact same file the
upload completes instantly. This way a complete system backup into the
cloud only takes a fraction of the time it used to take. And the longer
we exist, the more files we receive, the faster we get.” zz.
On or about April 23, 2009, DOTCOM sent an e-mail message to VAN
DER KOLK, ORTMANN, and BENCKO in which he complained about the deletion
of URL links in response to infringement notices from the copyright
holders. In the message, DOTCOM stated that “I told you many
times not to delete links that are reported in batches of thousands
from insignificant sources. I would say that those infringement reports
from MEXICO of “14,000” links would fall into that
category. And the fact that we lost significant revenue because of it
justifies my reaction.”
39
aaa.
On or about April 24, 2009, DOTCOM sent an e-mail to BENCKO,
ORTMANN, and VAN DER KOLK indicating, “I remembered the steep
drop of revenue at the same time in 2008 and thought that this might
have also been caused by careless mass link deletions. This made me
very mad, especially because I told you that such mass deletions should
be prevented and sources checked much more carefully. I am sure such
mass link deletions are also contributing to a drop of revenue
… In the future please do not delete thousands of links at
ones from a single source unless it comes from a major organization in
the US.” bbb. Starting as early as April 29, 2009, a member
of the Mega Conspiracy
made multiple transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to NA, a resident of Alexandria,
Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, as part of the
Mega Conspiracy’s “Uploader Rewards”
program. NA received total payments from the Conspiracy of $600,
including transfers of $100 on April 29, 2009; $100 on May 25, 2009;
and $400 on July 31, 2009. ccc. Starting as early as April 29, 2009, a
member of the Mega Conspiracy
made multiple transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to NS, a resident of Fairfax, Virginia,
which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, as part of the Mega
Conspiracy’s “Uploader Rewards” program.
NS received total payments from the Conspiracy of $300, including
transfers of $100 on April 29, 2009; $100 on April 26, 2010; and $100
on May 8, 2010. ddd. On or about May 7, 2009, ORTMANN sent an e-mail in
German to
DOTCOM indicating the top referring or linking sites to Megaupload.com
by Megaupload premium users. The linking sites included:
seriesyonkis.com, surfthechannel.com, sharebee.com, taringa.net,
watch-movies-links.net, cinetube.es, and megauploadforum.net.
40
eee.
On or about May 17, 2009, NOMM sent an e-mail to ORTMANN entitled
“Competitor Links Report.” The e-mail indicated
that the top third-party sites used to reach Megavideo.com content were
seriesyonkis.com, peliculasyonkis.com, dospuntocerovision.com,
cinetube.es, and surfthechannel.com, which are all linking sites. fff.
On or about May 25, 2009, NOMM sent an e-mail to DOTCOM and
ORTMANN entitled “status report.” NOMM wrote
“I have been processing HD videos for some time now to find
best of the best for showcase (Mathias gave specification). Even though
we have lots of HD content uploaded most seems to be problematic
quality or legality wise.” ggg. On or about May 25, 2009,
BATATO sent an e-mail to ORTMANN that
contained customers’ e-mails. One of the customer e-mails
indicated: “We watched Taken successfuly and then tried to
watch the “Alphabet Killer” a day later and got the
message to upgrade if we wanted to continue watching.” hhh.
On or about June 6, 2009, BATATO sent an e-mail to an advertiser
indicating, “Banners will be shown on the download pages of
Megaupload. You will find some links here for example:
http://mulinks.com/news.php”. iii. Starting as early as July
31, 2009, a member of the Mega Conspiracy
made multiple transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to TT, a resident of Woodbridge,
Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, as part of the
Mega Conspiracy’s “Uploader Rewards”
program. TT received total payments from the Conspiracy of $2,700,
including transfers totaling $100 on July 31, 2009; $100 on August 29,
2009; $200 on September 18, 2009; $100 on September 29, 2009; $200 on
October 8, 2009; $200 on November 8, 2009; $600 on November 24, 2009;
$1,000 on December 23, 2009; and $200 on February 1, 2010.
41
jjj.
Starting as early as August 9, 2009, a member of the Mega Conspiracy
made multiple transfers in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce through PayPal, Inc. to CW, a resident of Moseley, Virginia,
which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, as part of the Mega
Conspiracy’s “Uploader Rewards” program.
CW received total payments from the Conspiracy of $2,900, including
payments of $100 and $600 on August 9, 2009; a payment of $500 on
October 8, 2009; a transfer of $1,500 on December 23, 2009; and a
payment of $200 on June 21, 2010. kkk. On or about August 10, 2009, TT
of Woodbridge, Virginia, which is in the
Eastern District of Virginia, sent a payment of $9.99 that traveled in
interstate and foreign commerce through PayPal, Inc., and was received
by the Megaupload.com PayPal, Inc. account. lll. On or about September
4, 2009, a representative of Warner Brothers
Entertainment, Inc. (“Warner”) sent an e-mail to
Megaupload.com, stating that Warner was “unable to remove
links” to copyright-infringing content on Megaupload.com
using the Abuse Tool. In the e-mail, the Warner representative
requested an increase in Warner’s removal limit, which is
controlled by the Mega Conspiracy. On or about September 8, the
representative sent a follow-up request, and on or about September 9,
the representative sent another follow-up request. On or about
September 10, ORTMANN sent an e-mail to DOTCOM, stating,
“They are currently removing 2500 files per day - a cursory
check indicates that it’s legit takedowns of content that
they own appearing in public forums.” ORTMANN also stated,
“We should comply with their request - we can afford to be
cooperative at current growth levels.” DOTCOM responded that
the limit should be increased to 5,000 per day, but “not
unlimited.”
42
mmm. On or about September 29, 2009, CB of Alexandria, Virginia, which
is in the Eastern District of Virginia, sent a payment of $9.99 that
traveled in interstate and foreign commerce through PayPal, Inc., and
was received by the Megaupload.com PayPal, Inc. account. nnn. On or
about October 25, 2009, VAN DER KOLK instructed a Mega
Conspiracy employee in German through e-mail how to alter the
“featured” videos list on Megavideo.com and the Top
100 Megaupload.com list. ooo. On or about November 30, 2009, BATATO
sent an e-mail to an advertiser
stating: “Please go to mulinks.com and copy paste One of
those URLs to your browser. You will then See where the banner
appears.” ppp. On or about January 28, 2010, in an e-mail
entitled “activating old
countries,” a user of a Mega Conspiracy site asked BATATO:
“where can we see full movies?” BATATO replied
“You need to go to our referrer sites. Such as
www.thepiratecity.org or www.ovguide.com[.] There are the movie and
series links. You cannot find them by searching on MV directly. That
would cause us a lot of trouble ;-)” qqq. On or about
February 1, 2010, BATATO sent an e-mail to an unindicted
co-conspirator with the subject “[tradeit] –
Campaign stats” stating “We can’t deliver
[Hong Kong] traffic because the company is based in [Hong Kong] and we
don’t want to experience any trouble with license holders
etc. Remember, I told you about that topic ;-)”. rrr. On or
about March 15, 2010, a member of the Mega Conspiracy created
Megastuff Limited, a New Zealand company, that has facilitated the
transfer to New Zealand of millions of dollars in illicit proceeds and
assets for the personal financial gain of DOTCOM and other
conspirators, as well as to facilitate additional operations of the
Mega Conspiracy.
43
sss.
On or about May 8, 2010, NS of Fairfax, Virginia, which is in the
Eastern
District of Virginia, sent a payment of $199.99 that traveled in
interstate and foreign commerce through PayPal, Inc., and was received
by the Megaupload.com PayPal, Inc. account. ttt. On or about June 24,
2010, members of the Mega Conspiracy were
informed, pursuant to a criminal search warrant from the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, that thirty-nine infringing
copies of copyrighted motion pictures were believed to be present on
their leased servers at Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia. On or
about June 29, 2010, after receiving a copy of the criminal search
warrant, ORTMANN sent an e-mail entitled “Re: Search Warrant
– Urgent” to DOTCOM and three representatives of
Carpathia Hosting in the Eastern District of Virginia. In the e-mail,
ORTMANN stated, “The user/payment credentials supplied in the
warrant identify seven Mega user accounts”, and further that
“The 39 supplied MD5 hashes identify mostly very popular
files that have been uploaded by over 2000 different users so
far[.]” The Mega Conspiracy has continued to store copies of
at least thirty-six of the thirty-nine motion pictures on its servers
after the Mega Conspiracy was informed of the infringing content. uuu.
On or about July 8, 2010, DOTCOM sent an e-mail to ORTMANN and
ECHTERNACH entitled “attention.” The e-mail
contained a link to a news article entitled “Pirate Bay and
Megaupload Escape Domain Seizure by US.” The article
discussed how, “[a]s part of an initiative to crack down on
Internet piracy and counterfeiting, the US Government recently took
action against sites making available movies and TV shows.”
In the e-mail, DOTCOM stated, “this is a serious threat to
our business. Please look into this and see how we can protect
ourselfs.” DOTCOM also asked, “Should we move our
domain to another country
44
(canada or even HK?)” ECHTERNACH responded, “In
case domains are being seized from the registrar, it would be safer to
choose a non-US registrar[.]” vvv. On or about September 5,
2010, BENCKO sent an e-mail to DOTCOM,
ORTMANN, and VAN DER KOLK. Attached to the e-mail message was a
screenshot of BENCKO logged into a Megaupload.com file download page
with a filename of “Meet.Dave.2008.avi”. www. On or
about November 1, 2010, ECHTERNACH forwarded an e-mail from a Universal
Music Group (“UMG”) executive to DOTCOM and
ORTMANN, which discussed requirements that UMG would require of
Megaupload before they could discuss licensing for MegaBox. Included in
the list of requirements was “proactive fingerprint filtering
to ensure that there is no infringing music content hosted on its
service; proactive text filtering for pre-release titles that may not
appear in fingerprint databases at an early stage; terminate the
accounts of users that repeatedly infringe copyright; limit the number
of possible downloads from each file; process right holder take down
notices faster and more efficiently.” xxx. On or about
November 15, 2010, BATATO forwarded an e-mail to
ORTMANN entitled “member-issue” that was received
by a Mega Conspiracy employee from a user. In the forward, BATATO wrote
“Fanpost ;-)”. The email from the user stated
“I paid yesturday however can’t work it out!!!\ I
have been trying to see Robin Hod, 3th season, chapter 10, and do not
succeed. Please help me solve it – or cancel my
payment!” yyy. On or about December 10, 2010, DOTCOM
forwarded a complaint from a
user that “Megakey is not working” to ORTMANN and
VAN DER KOLK. In the forward, DOTCOM writes “this
doesn’t work yet? we are advertising it. why is it not
working?”. In the user’s e-mail, he complained that
he installed Megakey, which provides Mega Conspiracy
45
advertising to users in exchange for premium access to Megaupload.com
and Megavideo.com, and the user was still receiving a message about the
“megavideo time limit.” The e-mail included
apparent screenshots of the user’s computer which shows the
linking site animefreak.tv being used to attempt to watch an episode of
the copyrighted television series “Fruits Basket”
on Megavideo.com. zzz. On or about December 22, 2010, ORTMANN provided
DOTCOM with a
possible response to a press inquiry that discusses the Recording
Industry Association of America
(“RIAA”)’s campaign to have payment
services such as Mastercard to stop allowing payments to Megaupload.com
because the site is, in the words of the reporter citing RIAA,
“dedicated to facilitating copyright infringement.”
ORTMANN’s proposed response includes: “We are
watching the unfolding events with interest, but as the vast majority
of our revenue is coming from advertising, the effect on our business
will be limited.” aaaa. On or about January 13, 2011, DOTCOM
sent a proposed Megaupload.com public statement regarding piracy
allegations against the website to hosting company executives DS and
JK. On or about January 13, 2011, DS replied to DOTCOM: “It
looks accurate to me. good luck.” The same day, JK replied,
“Using the words, ‘….vast majority is
legitimate.’ Opens you up. It’s an admission that
there are ‘bad’ things on your site. I would get
rid of that so it simply reads that it is legitimate.” bbbb.
On or about January 27, 2011, ECHTERNACH received an e-mail from an
unindicted co-conspirator stating that “video resource sites
such as youtube which is our source for videos which we upload to
megavideo.” cccc. On or about February 2, 2011, DOTCOM
forwarded an article from The Telegraph by e-mail to ORTMANN, which
discusses the potential for courts in the
46
United Kingdom to block access to “websites used exclusively
for facilitating illegal downloading of content.” dddd. On or
about February 5, 2011, ORTMANN responded in an e-mail to DOTCOM,
copying ECHTERNACH and VAN DER KOLK, about an article that DOTCOM sent
him entitled
“how-to-stop-domain-names-being-seized-by-the-us-government.”
ORTMANN indicates the status of the Mega Conspiracy’s
completion of the recommendations made in the article. eeee. On or
about February 10, 2011, DOTCOM forwarded a complaint to ORTMANN from a
Taiwanese broadband service provider about problems its users have had
downloading from Megaupload.com. In the screenshots that are in the
original e-mail complaint is what appears to be an ongoing download of
a copyrighted The Simpsons episode from Fox Television entitled
“Treehouse of Horror XIII.” The e-mail traces the
download from the provider’s connection to Cogent
Communications to the Mega Conspiracy’s servers. ffff. On or
about February 18, 2011, DOTCOM forwarded an e-mail inquiry
entitled “‘Repeat Offender’ Infringement
Policy” to ORTMANN. In the original e-mail, a representative
of a copyright holder indicates that Megaupload.com does not specify
any “repeat offender or repeat infringer policy” in
its Terms of Service. The representative points out that the
“Safe Harbor” provision of the DMCA
“requires that providers deal appropriately with repeat
offenders” and asks for the termination of repeat offenders
on Megaupload.com. gggg. On or about February 25, 2011, BATATO
forwarded an e-mail to NOMM, copying ORTMANN, entitled
“embedded ads not functioning correctly,” from an
individual complaining that the advertising click through rate
(“CTR”) from playing Megavideo.com videos directly
on the linking site alluc.org has suffered because the embedded
47
advertising from the Mega Conspiracy is not automatically playing on
the external website. The individual’s e-mail contains
screenshots from the linking site that shows episodes of the BBC
copyrighted television show Red Dwarf that were available on
Megavideo.com. BATATO, in the forward, stated: “Could you
please check that issue? We need to help them a bit now as their CTR
and conversions went down by 50% and 95% respectively. That was
expected but at least we should help them now get their campaigns
running w/o problems.” hhhh. On or about February 25, 2011,
BATATO sent an e-mail to NOMM and VAN DER KOLK regarding problems with
getting “pre-roll” advertising for Megavideo.com
because of a “copy right issue.” His e-mail
contains messages between employees of Megaclick.com and a third-party
advertising service. In an early message, the Megaclick.com employee
informs BATATO that the third-party advertising service considers it
illegal to monetize infringing content through advertising immediately
prior to viewing the content. iiii. On or about March 9, 2011, a
developer for the Mega Conspiracy sent an
e-mail to ORTMANN and two other individuals. In the e-mail, the
developer indicated that an associate had downloaded an infringing copy
of a copyrighted musical recording entitled
“The_Matrix_-_Original_Motion_Picture_Score.rar”
from Rapidshare.com, and then, using the “Megakey music
search,” added the files to a Megabox account. The e-mail
further indicates that the Megabox website listed the wrong artist for
the album. jjjj. On or about April 29, 2011, members of the Conspiracy
infringed the
copyright of the motion picture “The Green Hornet”
by making it available on publicly accessible Internet-connected
servers at Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia, within the Eastern
District of Virginia, and reproduced and distributed the work over the
Internet without
48
authorization. The film, which had been released in U.S. theaters on
or about January 14, 2011, was not commercially distributed in the
United States until on or about May 3, 2011. kkkk. On or about May 13,
2011, members of the Conspiracy infringed the copyright of the motion
picture “Thor” by making it available on publicly
accessible Internetconnected servers at Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn,
Virginia, within the Eastern District of Virginia, and reproduced and
distributed the work over the Internet without authorization. The film,
which had been released in U.S. theaters on or about May 6, 2011, was
not commercially distributed in the United States until on or about
September 13, 2011. llll. On or about June 7, 2011, VAN DER KOLK sent
an e-mail to
ORTMANN forwarding a French complaint about infringement of their
copyrighted motion pictures. In the forward, VAN DER KOLK stated:
“They basically want us to audit / filter every upload, and
are threatening with action against us if their material continues to
appear on MV.” mmmm. On or about July 6, 2011, DOTCOM
forwarded an online story
from Spiegel.tv to ORTMANN about the takedown of the linking site
Kino.to by law enforcement in Germany, and wrote, in German:
“Possibly not fly to Germany?” nnnn. On or about
July 6, 2011, BATATO sent an e-mail to ORTMANN forwarding a string of
e-mails in German from an advertising entity saying that a customer
wants their campaigns on a Mega Site discontinued because of concerns
related to the Kino.to takedown. oooo. On or about August 11, 2011,
DOTCOM forwarded an e-mail to ORTMANN from a user who stated:
“I used to buy monthly fees to help with the cost of you guys
doing business . … I miss being about to view tv shows on
you service . My most favorite was True blood and battle star
Gallactica . I would be happy to continue to pay for the service ,
49
but some thing would needs to change. I don't mind your services be
bogged down from time to time. I don't mind paying, but i need to get
something for the service i pay for.” pppp. On or about
August 12, 2011, members of the Conspiracy infringed the copyright of
the motion picture “Bad Teacher” by making it
available on publicly accessible Internet-connected servers at
Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia, within the Eastern District of
Virginia, and reproduced and distributed the work over the Internet
without authorization. The film, which had been released in U.S.
theaters on or about June 24, 2011, was not commercially distributed in
the United States until on or about October 18, 2011. qqqq. On or about
August 14, 2011, members of the Conspiracy infringed the copyright of
the motion picture “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
Part 1” by distribution without authorization. rrrr. On or
about September 16, 2011, NOMM sent an analysis of
Megavideo.com to ORTMANN by e-mail. The analysis indicates:
“The search function for the site should also list full
length videos. Currently, movies that do not have copyright
infringements are also not being listed in the search.” The
analysis further indicates: “Movies should also be available
in Megavideo and not from third party websites only[.]” ssss.
On or about September 17, 2011, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to
ORTMANN, attaching a Google Analytics report on referrals to
Megaupload.com from the linking site Taringa.net. The single page
report indicates that, between August 17, 2010 and September 16, 2011,
Taringa.net provided more than 72 million referrals to Megaupload.com,
with the top 10 links including some copyrighted software and music
titles. The page indicates, for example, that the linking site produced
164,214 visits to Megaupload.com for a download of
50
the copyrighted CD/DVD burning software package Nero Suite 10. This
software program had a suggested retail price of $99. tttt. On or about
October 10, 2011, JK, an executive from a hosting provider,
sent an e-mail to ORTMANN entitled “Article.” The
e-mail contained a link to a news article, which discussed how a Dutch
court ordered a “major” website “to
delete all infringing content from its servers.” The article
asked: “Could file-hosting services like MegaUpload and
RapidShare be next?” In the e-mail, JK asked ORTMANN:
“Do you have any concerns that this kind of thing could find
its way to you”? ORTMANN responded to JK, with a copy to
DOTCOM, stating that the sites in the article “provide a
search index covering their entire content base, including the
infringing material.” uuuu. On or about October 14, 2011,
DOTCOM sent an e-mail to a PayPal, Inc. representative indicating: Our
legal team in the US is currently preparing to sue some of our
competitors and expose their criminal activity. We like to give you a
heads up and advice you not to work with sites that are known to pay
uploaders for pirated content. They are damaging the image and the
existence of the file hosting industry (see whats happening with the
Protect IP act). Look at Fileserve.com, Videobb.com, Filesonic.com,
Wupload.com, Uploadstation.com. These sites pay everyone (no matter if
the files are pirated or not) and have NO repeat infringer policy. And
they are using PAYPAL to pay infringers. vvvv. On or about October 18,
2011, VAN DER KOLK sent an e-mail to ORTMANN, forwarding a complaint
from the Vietnamese Entertainment Content Protection Association. The
complaint indicated that the DMCA Abuse Tool for Megaupload.com does
not remove particular types of links. It also noted that a particular
linking site is a repeat infringer “where users and admin
team are all involved in upload and reupload as soon as the files are
removed.” It also stated “To date, we have removed
24 pages of infringed download links and almost 100% are
Megaupload.”
51
wwww.
On or about November 10, 2011, a member of the Mega
Conspiracy made a transfer of $185,000 to further an advertising
campaign for Megaupload.com, involving a musical recording and video.
xxxx. On or about November 20, 2011, members of the Conspiracy
infringed the copyright of a high definition version of the motion
picture “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring”
by distribution without authorization. yyyy. On or about November 20,
2011, members of the Conspiracy infringed the copyright of the motion
picture “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part
1” by making it available on publicly accessible
Internet-connected servers at Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia,
within the Eastern District of Virginia, and reproduced and distributed
the work over the Internet without authorization. The film, which was
released in U.S. theaters on or about November 18, 2011, has not been
commercially distributed as of the date of this Indictment.
(All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371)
52
COUNT THREE (18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) – Conspiracy to
Commit Money Laundering) THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT: 70. All of the
allegations in Counts One, Two, Four, and Five are incorporated as if
set forth here in their entirety. 71. Beginning in at least September
2005 and continuing until at least the date of this
Indictment, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the
defendants, KIM DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN
BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM,
and BRAM VAN DER KOLK each knowingly and intentionally combined,
conspired, and agreed together and with each other, and with other
persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to commit offenses against
the United States in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Sections 1956 and 1957, namely: (a) to knowingly conduct and attempt to
conduct a financial transaction
affecting interstate and foreign commerce, which in fact involved the
proceeds of the specified unlawful activity of criminal copyright
infringement with the intent to promote the carrying on of the
specified unlawful activity of criminal copyright infringement, and
that while conducting and
53
attempting to conduct such financial transaction knew that the
property involved in the financial transaction represented the proceeds
of some form of unlawful activity in violation of Title 18, United
States Code, Section 1956(a)(1)(A)(i); (b) to transport, transmit, and
transfer and attempt to transport, transmit, and
transfer a monetary instrument and funds from a place in the United
States to and through a place outside the United States, and to a place
in the United States from or through a place outside the United States,
with the intent to promote the carrying on of the specified unlawful
activity of criminal copyright infringement, in violation of Title 18,
United States Code, Section 1956(a)(2)(A); and (c) to knowingly engage
and attempt to engage in monetary transactions in
criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000 that is
derived from the specified unlawful activity of criminal copyright
infringement, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section
1957. Ways, Manner, and Means of the Conspiracy In furtherance of the
Conspiracy, defendants and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury
employed, among others, the following manner and means: 72. It was part
of the Conspiracy that members of the Conspiracy willfully
reproduced and distributed, in the Eastern District of Virginia and
elsewhere, infringing copies and phonorecords of copyrighted works with
the purpose of private financial gain; such conduct is a
“specified unlawful activity” under Title 18 of the
United States Code, Section 1956(c)(7)(D). 73. It was further part of
the Conspiracy that infringing copies and phonorecords of
copyrighted works were stored on computer servers controlled by the
Conspiracy located at
54
Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia, which is in the Eastern
District of Virginia; such conduct occurred at least in part in the
United States, under Title 18 of the United States Code, Section
1956(f)(1). 74. It was further part of the Conspiracy that a
transaction or series of transactions
conducted by members of the Conspiracy involved funds or monetary
instruments of a value exceeding $10,000, under Title 18 of the United
States Code, Section 1956(f)(2). 75. It was further part of the
Conspiracy that members of the Conspiracy intended to
promote the carrying on of criminal copyright infringement using
multiple financial transactions affecting interstate and foreign
commerce, which involved the proceeds of criminal copyright
infringement, and that, while conducting and attempting to conduct such
financial transactions, members of the Conspiracy knew that the
property involved in the transactions represented the proceeds of
criminal copyright infringement. 76. It was further part of the
Conspiracy that members of the Conspiracy intended to
promote the carrying on of criminal copyright infringement using
multiple transfers involving monetary instruments and funds from places
in the United States to and through places outside the United States,
and to places in the United States from or through places outside the
United States. 77. It was further part of the Conspiracy that members
of the Conspiracy knowingly
engaged in multiple monetary transactions in criminally derived
property of a value greater than $10,000 that was derived from criminal
copyright infringement. 78. It was further part of the Conspiracy that
multiple transfers totaling more than
$5 million, which involved proceeds of criminal copyright infringement
in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, from a Moneybookers
Limited account in the United Kingdom were
55
made, and the transfers were directed to a DBS (Hong Kong) Limited
account for the Conspiracy in Hong Kong between August 1, 2010 and July
31, 2011; such activity provides jurisdiction under Title 18 of the
United States Code, Section 1956(f). 79. It was further part of the
Conspiracy that multiple transfers totaling more than
$66 million, which involved proceeds of criminal copyright infringement
in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, from a PayPal, Inc.
account were made in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce and
by a member of the Conspiracy, and the transfers were directed to a DBS
(Hong Kong) Limited account for the Conspiracy between on or about
August 3, 2007, and July 31, 2011; such activity provides jurisdiction
under Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1956(f). 80. It was
further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers totaling more
than
$6 million, which involved proceeds of criminal copyright infringement
in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, from a PayPal, Inc.
account for the Conspiracy were made in and affecting interstate and
foreign commerce by a member of the Conspiracy, and the transfers were
directed to a bank account in Hong Kong for the Conspiracy between on
or about August 15, 2005, and July 5, 2010; such activity provides
jurisdiction under Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1956(f)
and included the following: a. On or about August 15, 2005, a transfer
of approximately $14,750 to a HSBC Bank account for the Conspiracy; On
or about September 23, 2008, transfers of approximately $320,150 to a
DBS (Hong Kong) Limited account for the Conspiracy; On or about
November 9, 2009, transfers of approximately $1,077,648 to a DBS (Hong
Kong) Limited account for the Conspiracy; On or about December 2, 2009,
transfers of approximately $667,443 to a DBS (Hong Kong) Limited
account for the Conspiracy; and
b.
c.
d.
56
e.
On or about July 5, 2010, transfers of approximately $656,507 to a DBS
(Hong Kong) Limited account for the Conspiracy.
81.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers, which
involved
proceeds of criminal copyright infringement in the Eastern District of
Virginia and elsewhere, from a DBS (Hong Kong) Limited bank account for
the Conspiracy were made by a member of the Conspiracy, and the
transfers were directed to a ABN AMRO BANK NV account for Leaseweb in
the Netherlands; such activity provides jurisdiction under Title 18 of
the United States Code, Section 1956(f) and included the following: a.
b. 82. On or about May 5, 2009, a transfer of approximately $733,000;
and On or about December 16, 2009, a transfer of approximately $800,000.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers, which
involved
proceeds of criminal copyright infringement in the Eastern District of
Virginia and elsewhere, from a DBS (Hong Kong) Limited bank account for
the Conspiracy were made in and affecting interstate and foreign
commerce by a member of the Conspiracy, and the transfers were directed
to a PNC Bank NA account for Carpathia Hosting in Richmond, Virginia,
which is in the Eastern District of Virginia, including the following:
a. b. c. d. e. 83. On or about December 20, 2010, a transfer of
approximately $720,000; On or about March 31, 2011, a transfer of
approximately $1,060,274; On or about May 5, 2011, a transfer of
approximately $950,000; On or about June 2, 2011, a transfer of
approximately $950,000; and On or about July 5, 2011, a transfer of
approximately $950,000.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers, which
involved
proceeds of criminal copyright infringement in the Eastern District of
Virginia and elsewhere, from a DBS (Hong Kong) Limited bank account for
the Conspiracy were made in and affecting 57
interstate and foreign commerce by a member of the Conspiracy, and the
transfers were directed to a Suntrust Bank account for Cogent
Communications in Atlanta, Georgia, including the following: a. b. c.
d. e. f. g. h. i. j. k. l. m. n. o. p. q. r. s. t. On or about February
25, 2009, a transfer of approximately $625,000; On or about March 27,
2009, a transfer of approximately $875,000; On or about April 27, 2009,
a transfer of approximately $875,000; On or about May 27, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about June 29, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about July 27, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about August 28, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about September 28, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about October 28, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about November 25, 2009, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about January 25, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about February 26, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about March 29, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about April 27, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about May 27, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about June 28, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about July 23, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,450,000; On or about August 27, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about September 24, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about October 28, 2010, a
transfer of approximately $1,000,000;
58
u. v. w. x. y. z. aa. bb. cc. dd. 84.
On or about November 29, 2010, a transfer of approximately $1,000,000;
On or about December 28, 2010, a transfer of approximately $1,667,500;
On or about January 26, 2011, a transfer of approximately $1,475,000;
On or about February 28, 2011, a transfer of approximately $1,100,000;
On or about March 29, 2011, a transfer of approximately $682,600; On or
about April 26, 2011, a transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or
about May 27, 2011, a transfer of approximately $1,000,000; On or about
June 2, 2011, a transfer of approximately $93,600; On or about June 28,
2011, a transfer of approximately $1,093,600; and On or about July 26,
2011, a transfer of approximately $1,093,600.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers, which
involved
proceeds of criminal copyright infringement in the Eastern District of
Virginia and elsewhere, from the PayPal, Inc. account for the
Conspiracy in Hong Kong were made in and affecting interstate and
foreign commerce by a member of the Conspiracy to the benefit of
Carpathia Hosting in Ashburn, Virginia, which is in the Eastern
District of Virginia, including the following: a. On or about October
7, 2008, transfers totaling approximately $90,000 to WR, the Chief
Financial Officer of Carpathia Hosting; On or about May 30, 2010,
transfers totaling approximately $688,852 to WR, the Chief Financial
Officer of Carpathia Hosting; and On or about July 2, 2010, transfers
totaling approximately $688,852 to WR, the Chief Financial Officer of
Carpathia Hosting.
b.
c.
85.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers, which
involved
proceeds of criminal copyright infringement in the Eastern District of
Virginia and elsewhere, from the PayPal, Inc. account for the
Conspiracy were made in and affecting interstate and 59
foreign commerce by a member of the Conspiracy to the benefit of
individuals in the Eastern District of Virginia in order to promote
criminal copyright infringement, including the following: a. On
September 29, 2007, and March 11, 2009, a member(s) of the Conspiracy
made transfers of $1,500 (totaling $3,000) to PA, a resident of Newport
News, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia; Starting
as early as January 27, 2008, multiple transfers to CB, a resident of
Alexandria, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia. A
member(s) of the Conspiracy transferred a total of $500 to CB,
including transfers of $100 on January 27, 2008; $300 on October 8,
2009; and $100 on February 1, 2010; Starting as early as February 11,
2008, multiple transfers to ND, a resident of Falls Church, Virginia,
which is in the Eastern District of Virginia. A member(s) of the
Conspiracy transferred a total of $900 to ND, including transfers of
$100 on February 11, 2008; $100 on March 3, 2008; $300 on March 15,
2008; $100 on March 29, 2008; and $300 on April 15, 2008; Starting as
early as April 29, 2009, multiple transfers to NA, a resident of
Alexandria, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia. A
member(s) of the Conspiracy transferred a total of $600 to NA,
including transfers of $100 on April 29, 2009; $100 on May 25, 2009;
and $400 on July 31, 2009; Starting as early as April 29, 2009,
multiple transfers to NS, a resident of Fairfax, Virginia, which is in
the Eastern District of Virginia. A member(s) of the Conspiracy
transferred a total of $300 to NS, including transfers of $100 on April
29, 2009; $100 on April 26, 2010; and $100 on May 8, 2010; Starting as
early as July 31, 2009, multiple transfers to TT, a resident of
Woodbridge, Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia. A
member(s) of the Conspiracy transferred a total of $2,700 to TT,
including transfers of $100 on July 31, 2009; $100 on August 9, 2009;
$100 on September 2, 2009; $200 on September 18, 2009; $200 on October
8, 2009; $200 on November 8, 2009; $600 on November 24, 2009; $1,000 on
December 23, 2009; and $200 on February 1, 2010; and Starting as early
as August 9, 2009, multiple transfers to CW, a resident of Moseley,
Virginia, which is in the Eastern District of Virginia. A member(s) of
the Conspiracy transferred a total of $2,900 to CW, including transfers
of $100 and $600 on August 9, 2009; a payment of $500 on October 8,
2009; a transfer of $1,500 on December 23, 2009; and a payment of $200
on June 21, 2010. 60
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
86.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that multiple transfers, which
involved
proceeds of copyright infringement in the Eastern District of Virginia
and elsewhere, were made by the Conspiracy for yacht rentals in the
Mediterranean Sea, for the purpose of promoting criminal copyright
infringement, including the following: a. b. c. d. e. 87. On or about
April 8, 2011, VESTOR LIMITED transferred approximately $616,000 to NBS
for yacht rental; On or about April 18, 2011, VESTOR LIMITED
transferred approximately $3,606,000 to ECL for yacht rental; On or
about May 27, 2011, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED transferred approximately
$212,000 to ECL for yacht rental; On or about June 22, 2011, VESTOR
LIMITED transferred approximately $1,127,000 to NBS for yacht rental;
and On or about June 24, 2011, VESTOR LIMITED transferred approximately
$2,394,000 to SYM for yacht rental.
It was further part of the Conspiracy that on or about November 10,
2011, a
member of the Conspiracy made transfers of $185,000, for the purpose of
promoting criminal copyright infringement, associated with an
advertising campaign for Megaupload.com.
(All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(h))
61
COUNT FOUR (18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 2319; 17 U.S.C.
§ 506 – Criminal Copyright Infringement by
Distributing a Copyrighted Work Being Prepared For Commercial
Distribution on a Computer Network & Aiding and Abetting
Criminal Copyright Infringement) THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT: 88. On or
about October 25, 2008, in the Eastern District of Virginia and
elsewhere,
the defendants, KIM DOTCOM, MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN
BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM,
and BRAM VAN DER KOLK did willfully, and for purposes of private
financial gain, infringe a copyright by distributing a work being
prepared for commercial distribution in the United States, to wit, the
copyrighted motion picture “Taken” (which would not
be commercially distributed until on or about January 30, 2009) by
making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the
public, when defendants knew, and should have known, that the work was
intended for commercial distribution. (All in violation of Title 17,
United States Code, Section 506(a)(1)(C) and Title 18, United States
Code, Sections 2 & 2319(d)(2))
62
COUNT FIVE (18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 2319; 17 U.S.C.
§ 506 Criminal Copyright Infringement By Electronic Means
& Aiding and Abetting Criminal Copyright Infringement) THE
GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT: 89. For the 180 days up to and including the
date of this Indictment, in the Eastern
District of Virginia and elsewhere, the defendants, KIM DOTCOM,
MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED, VESTOR LIMITED, FINN BATATO, JULIUS BENCKO, SVEN
ECHTERNACH, MATHIAS ORTMANN, ANDRUS NOMM, and BRAM VAN DER KOLK did
willfully, and for purposes of private financial gain, infringe
copyrights in certain motion pictures, television programs, musical
recordings, electronic books, images, video games, and other computer
software, by reproducing and distributing over the Internet, during a
180-day period, ten or more copies and phonorecords of one or more
copyrighted works which had a total retail value of more than $2,500.
(All in violation of Title 17, United States Code, Section 506(a)(1)(A)
and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2319(b)(1)) 63
NOTICE OF FORFEITURE (18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C); 18 U.S.C.
§ 982(a)(1); 18 U.S.C. § 1963; 18 U.S.C. §
2323; 21 U.S.C. § 853; 28 U.S.C. § 2461(c)) 90. The
allegations contained in Counts One through Five of this Indictment are
hereby realleged and incorporated by reference for the purpose of
alleging forfeiture. THE GRAND JURY HEREBY FINDS THAT: 91. There is
probable cause that the property described in this NOTICE OF
FORFEITURE is subject to forfeiture pursuant to the statutes described
herein. NOTICE AS TO COUNTS ONE THROUGH FIVE AS TO ALL DEFENDANTS 92.
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(a), the United
States of
America gives notice to all defendants that, in the event of a
conviction by any defendant of any of the offenses charged in Counts
One through Five of this Indictment, the United States intends to
forfeit the property of that defendant as is further described in this
NOTICE OF FORFEITURE. 93. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1963, each
defendant who is convicted of an offense in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962, shall forfeit to the United
States of America: a. any interest that defendant has acquired or
maintained in violation of Section 1962; any interest in, security of,
claim against, or property or contractual right of any kind affording a
source of influence over, any enterprise which the defendant, his
co-conspirators, his associates, and other persons known or unknown to
the grand jury have established, operated, controlled, conducted, or
participated in the conduct of, in violation of Section 1962; and any
property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds which the
defendant obtained, directly or indirectly, from racketeering activity
or unlawful debt collection in violation of 1962.
b.
c.
64
94.
Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C) and 28 U.S.C. §
2461(c), each defendant
who is convicted of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, in
violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 2319, shall forfeit
to the United States of America any property, real or personal, which
constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the conspiracy.
95. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 982(a)(1), each defendant who is
convicted of conspiracy
to launder monetary instruments, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §
1956(h), shall forfeit to the United States of America any property,
real or personal, involved in such offense, and any property traceable
to such property. 96. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2323, each
defendant who is convicted of criminal
copyright infringement, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2319 and
17 U.S.C. § 506, shall forfeit to the United States of
America: a. any article, the making or trafficking of which is,
prohibited under 18 U.S.C. § 2319 or 17 U.S.C. § 506;
any property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part to
commit or facilitate the commission of a violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 2319 or 17 U.S.C. § 506; and any property
constituting or derived from any proceeds obtained directly or
indirectly as the result of the commission of a violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 2319 or 17 U.S.C. § 506. MONEY JUDGMENT 97. The
United States of America gives notice to all defendants, that upon
conviction
b.
c.
of any defendant, a money judgment may be imposed on that defendant
equal to the total value of the property subject to forfeiture, which
is at least $175,000,000.
65
PROPERTY SUBJECT TO FORFEITURE 98. The United States of America gives
notice to all defendants, that the property to
be forfeited includes, but is not limited to, the following: 1. 2. 3.
4. $175,000,000 in United States dollars; Bank of New Zealand, Account
No. XX-XXXX-XXXX200-04, in the name of Cleaver Richards Trust Account
for Megastuff Limited; Kiwibank, Account No. XX-XXXX-XXXX922-00, in the
name of Megastuff Limited Nominee Account No. 1; Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation Limited in Auckland, New Zealand, Account No.
XXXXXXXXXXXX2088, in the name of BRAM VAN DER KOLK; Citibank, Account
No. XXXXXX3053, in the name of Megacard, Inc.; Citibank, Account No.
XXXXXX3066, in the name of Megasite, Inc.; Stadtsparkasse
München, Account No. XXXX4734, in the name of FINN BATATO;
Commerzbank, Account No. XXXXXXXX4800, in the name of SVEN ECHTERNACH;
Deutsche Bank AG, Account No. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX6600, in the name of
MATHIAS ORTMANN; Computershare Investor Services Limited, Holder No.
XXXX4385, in the name of KIM DOTCOM (New Zealand Government Bonds);
Development Bank of Singapore, Account No. XXXXXX0320, in the name of
MEGAUPLOAD LTD.; Development Bank of Singapore - Vickers Securities,
Account No. XX1901, in the name of MEGAUPLOAD LTD.; Development Bank of
Singapore-Vickers Securities, Account No. XXX089-4, in the name of
Megamedia Ltd.; Hang Seng Bank Ltd., Account No. XXXXXX78-833, in the
name of Megamedia Ltd.; Hang Seng Bank, Account No. XXXXXXXX8001, in
the name of Megamedia Ltd.; Hang Seng Bank, Account No. XXX-XXXX48-382,
in the name of Megamedia Ltd.;
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
66
17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
Development Bank of Singapore, Account No. XXXXX5252, in the name of
Megamusic Limited; Development Bank of Singapore, Account No.
XXXXX0060, in the name of MEGAUPLOAD LTD.; Hang Seng Bank, Account No.
XXX-XXXX75-883, in the name of MEGAUPLOAD LTD.; Westpac Bank, Account
No. XX-XXXX-XXXX847-02, in the name of Simpson Grierson Trust Account,
holder KIM DOTCOM. Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited,
Account Nos. XXX-XXXXX6-220/XXXX6-201/XXXXX6-838, in the name of
MEGAUPLOAD LTD.; Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited,
Account No. XXXXXXXX5833, in the name of FINN BATATO; Hongkong and
Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Account No. XXX-XXXXX5-833, in
the name of an individual with the initials BVL; Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation Limited, Account No. XXXXXXXX8833, in the name of
ANDRUS NOMM; Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Account
No. XXXXXXXX3833, in the name of BRAM VAN DER KOLK; Hang Seng Bank
Ltd., Account No. XXX-XXXX52-888, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR;
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Account No. XXXXXXXX7833, in
the name of SVEN ECHTERNACH; Development Bank of Singapore, Account No.
XXXXXX6160, in the name of VESTOR LIMITED; Citibank (Hong Kong)
Limited, Account No. XXXX8921, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR;
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Account No.
XXXXXXXX4833, in the name of MATHIAS ORTMANN; Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation Limited, Account No. XXXXXXXX6888, in the name of
an individual with the initials JPLL; Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation Limited, Account No. XXXXXXXX9833, in the name of JULIUS
BENCKO; Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Account No.
XXXXXXXX2838, in the name of RNK Media Company; Development Bank of
Singapore Hong Kong, Account No. XXXXXX6930, in the name of A Limited;
67
22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34.
35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52.
Development Bank of Singapore, Account No. XXXXX1690, in the name of A
Limited; Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited, Account No. XXXX6237, in the
name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR; Development Bank of Singapore, Account No.
XXXXXX9970, in the name of KIM DOTCOM/KIM VESTOR; Citibank (Hong Kong)
Limited, Account No. XXXX8942, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR;
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Account No.
XXX-XXXX16-888, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR; Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (ICBC), Account No.
XXXXXXXX8434, in the name of MATHIAS ORTMANN; Development Bank of
Singapore, Account No. XXXXXX4440, in the name of Megapay Ltd.;
Development Bank of Singapore, Account No. XXX-XXXXXXXXX8760, in the
name of Megastuff Ltd.; Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
Limited, Account No. XXXXXXXX6838, in the name of MEGAUPLOAD LTD.;
Development Bank of Singapore, Account No. XXX-XXXXXXXXX8870, in the
name of N-1 Limited; Development Bank of Singapore, Account No.
XXX-XXXXXXXXX1980, in the name of N-1 Limited; Citibank (Hong Kong)
Limited, Account No. XXXXX 0741, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR;
Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited, Account No. XXXXX0768, in the name of KIM
TIM JIM VESTOR; Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited, Account No. XXXXX1055, in
the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR; Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited, Account
No. XXXXX9938, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR; Citibank (Hong Kong)
Limited, Account No. XXXXX8948, in the name of KIM TIM JIM VESTOR;
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Account No. XXXXXXXX0833, in
the name of an individual with the initials LRV; Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation, Account No. XXXXXXXX04-888, in the name of an
individual with the initials WT; 68
53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62.
Bank of the Philippine Islands, Account No. XXXXXX0069, in the name of
Megateam Limited; Bank of the Philippine Islands, Account No.
XXXXXX0264, in the name of Megateam Limited; Bank of the Philippine
Islands, Account No. XXXXXX3627, in the name of KIM SCHMITZ; Bank of
the Philippine Islands, Account No. XXXXXX7676, in the name of KIM
SCHMITZ; Rabobank Nederland, Account No. NLXXXXXXXXXXXX7300, in the
name of Bramos BV; Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Australia,
Account No. XXXXXXXX0087, in the name of MATHIAS ORTMANN;
Ceskoslovenska Obchodna Banka Slovakia, Account No. XXXXXXXX9833, in
the name of JULIUS BENCKO; Paypal Inc., account paypal@megaupload.com;
Paypal Inc., account belonging to KIM DOTCOM
(xxxxxx@ultimaterally.com); Paypal Inc., accounts belonging to SVEN
ECHTERNACH (xxxxxx@sectravel.com, xxxxxx@sectravel.com, and
xxxxxx@sven.com); Paypal Inc., account belonging to BRAM VAN DER KOLK
(xxxxxx@bramos.nl); Moneybookers Limited, account belonging to
ccmerchant@megaupload.com; Moneybookers Limited, account belonging to
moneybookers@megaupload.com; 2010 Maserati GranCabrio, VIN
ZAMKM45B000051328, License Plate No. “M-FB 212” or
“DH-GC 470”, registered to FINN BATATO; 2009
Mercedes-Benz E500 Coupe, VIN WDD20737225019582, License Plate No.
“FEG690”; 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, VIN
WDB2093422F165517, License Plate No. “GOOD”; 2004
Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG 5.5L Kompressor, VIN WDB2093422F166073,
License Plate No. “EVIL”; 2010 Mercedes-Benz S65
AMG L, VIN WDD2211792A324354, License Plate No.
“CEO”; 69
63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70.
71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87.
88. 89. 90.
2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coupe, VIN SCA2D68096UH07049;
License Plate No. “GOD”; 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63
AMG, VIN WDD2120772A103834, License Plate No.
“STONED”; 2010 Mini Cooper S Coupe, VIN
WMWZG32000TZ03651, License Plate No. “V”; 2010
Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, VIN WDC1641772A608055, License Plate No.
“GUILTY”; 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL65 AMG, VIN
WDD2163792A025130, License Plate No. “KIMCOM”; 2009
Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, VIN WDC1641772A542449, License Plate No.
“MAFIA”; 2010 Toyota Vellfire, VIN
7AT0H65MX11041670, License Plate Nos. “WOW” or
“7”; 2011 Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG, VIN
WDB4632702X193395, License Plate Nos. “POLICE” or
“GDS672”; 2011 Toyota Hilux, VIN MR0FZ29G001599926,
License Plate No. “FSN455”; Harley Davidson
Motorcycle, VIN 1HD1HPH3XBC803936, License Plate No.
“36YED”; 2010 Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG, VIN
WDD2163742A026653, License Plate No. “HACKER”; 2005
Mercedes-Benz A170, VIN WDD1690322J184595, License Plate No.
“FUR252”; 2005 Mercedes-Benz ML500, VIN
WDC1641752A026107, License Plate No. DFF816; Fiberglass sculpture,
imported from the United Kingdom with Entry No. 83023712; 1957 Cadillac
El Dorado, VIN 5770137596; 2010 Sea-Doo GTX Jet Ski, VIN YDV03103E010;
1959 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible, VIN 59F115669; Von Dutch Kustom
Motor Bike, VIN 1H9S14955BB451257; 2006 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM, VIN
WDB2094421T067269; 2010 Mini Cooper S Coupe, VIN WMWZG32000TZ03648
License Plate No. “T”; 70
91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106.
107. 108. 109. 110.
1989 Lamborghini LM002, VIN ZA9LU45AXKLA12158, License Plate No.
“FRP358”; 2011 Mercedes-Benz ML63, VIN
4JGBB7HB0BA666219; Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV; Samsung 820DXN
82” LCD TV; Samsung 820DXN 82” LCD TV; Devon Works
LLC, Tread #1 time piece; Artwork, In High Spirits, Olaf Mueller photos
from The Cat Street Gallery; Sharp 108” LCD Display TV; Sharp
108” LCD Display TV; Sony PMW-F3K Camera S/N 0200231; Sony
PMW-F3K Camera S/N 0200561; Artwork, Predator Statue; Artwork,
Christian Colin; Artwork, Anonymous Hooded Sculpture; 2009
Mercedes-Benz ML350 CDI 4MATIC Off-Roader; Sharp LC-65XS1M
65” LCD TV; Sharp LC-65XS1M 65” LCD TV; TVLogic
56” LUM56W TV; Sixty (60) Dell R710 computer servers; The
following domain names: Megastuff.co; Megaworld.com; Megaclicks.co;
Megastuff.info; Megaclicks.org; Megaworld.mobi; Megastuff.org;
Megaclick.us; Mageclick.com; HDmegaporn.com; Megavkdeo.com;
Megaupload.com; Megaupload.org; Megarotic.com; Megaclick.com;
Megavideo.com; Megavideoclips.com; Megaporn.com.