Quick Facts
| Net Worth | Not Known |
| Salary | Not Known |
| Height | Not Known |
| Date of Birth | Not Known |
| Profession | Media Personalities |
Kim Dotcom is a German Internet entrepreneur who has become famous for his online investment. Recently, he has found himself in the news for different things including copyright infringement, money laundering, racketeering, and wire fraud because of which the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to have him extradited to the United States from New Zealand where he resides.
Kim Dotcom’s Bio
While he is mostly known as Kim Dotcom, Kimble, or even Kim Tim Jim Vestor, it was as Kim Schmitz that he was born on 21 January 1974 in Kiel, West Germany. His father was German and his mother was Finnish.
For his secondary school education, Kim attended the German secondary school, Hauptschule. Since he was a young child, he got involved in programming and later gained notoriety as a teenage hacker who was arrested for selling stolen phone-calling card numbers. Although he was later found guilty, he was given a 2-year suspended sentence because he was only 20 years at the time.
Even before that, Kim Dotcom, who went by the name Kimble was famous for claiming that he hacked his way through the security systems of NASA, the Pentagon, as well as Citibank. He also claimed to have been involved in various other hackings.
He then moved to Hong Kong and founded the Megaupload Ltd. The company which was later shut down by the US Department of Justice offered online file hosting services. It was valued at over $175 million.
Before then, he took advantage of the internet boom of 2000 to start his security company, Dara Protect. Thanks to the company, he landed a deal with Lufthansa. In 2001, Kim Schmitz bought Letsbuyit.com shares of €375,000. After revealing that he was sure the company which was almost bankrupt was going to reach profitability, he announced that he was investing €50m into the company. That skyrocketed the stock price of the company and then he immediately cashed out with a profit of €1.5 million. He left for Thailand but was soon arrested in Bangkok.
It was after this that he decided to leave for Hong Kong where he started Trendax, Kimvestor Ltd, Monkey Ltd and Data Protect Ltd in 2003 and then Megaupload in 2005. At some point, Megaupload was so successful that it was among the 15 most visited websites.
He would soon leave Hong Kong for New Zealand in 2009. In 2012, his mansion was raided by the FBI, SWAT team, and police officers who also shut down Megaupload.com and in 2015, Kim Dotcom was forced to forfeit as much as $67m (£45m) of his assets to the United States government.
Where Is He Now?
Dotcom has spent the last years in New Zealand where he has been fighting against being extradited to the United States where he is expected to face the various suits against him. He also got involved in politics and founded the Internet Party in 2013 but failing to win any seats and with members going below 500, it was deregistered in 2018.
In 2015, Kim Dotcom and three other founders of Megaupload were found eligible for extradition by the District Court. The judgment was upheld by the New Zealand High Court in 2017 following an appeal by Dotcom’s legal team. After a second appeal, the ruling was upheld by the New Zealand Court of Appeal in 2018 and his legal team took up a third appeal with the Supreme Court.
Net Worth
Kim Dotcom who has been accused of amassing a fortune for himself illegally is known for his lavish lifestyle which he is always showing off. As of 2012, he was said to have had a net worth of $200 million. His recent net worth is not known as he has claimed that his legal battles have cost him much of his fortune.
He has sued the government of New Zealand to the tune of $6.8 billion for the destruction of his business, loss of reputation, and legal costs among other things. If by any chance he gets to win the suit, his net worth will definitely go very high.
Wife
In 2009, Kim Dotcom got married to Mona Verga whom he met in 2007. Mona Verga who was a model from the Philippines has five children with the interprenuer. However, their marriage was unable to survive beyond 2014 as they decided to settle for a divorce.
The next woman who would become the wife of Kim Schmitz is Elizabeth Donnelly whom he got married to in 2018. Kim and Elizabeth who was a law student and businesswoman, first announced of their relationship in 2016 and by 2017, they were already engaged before tying the knot despite their age difference that sees her over 20 years younger than her husband.
Height
Kim Dotcom is a man with massive height and a huge build, he stands at a height of 6 feet 7 inches (200.5 cm) with a body weight of 141 kg (311 lbs).
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