WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur fighting deportation from New Zealand to the United States on charges relating to his file-sharing website Megaupload, has suffered a “serious stroke”, a post on his X account said Monday.
“I have the best health professionals helping me to make a recovery. I will be back as soon as I can. Please be patient and pray for my family and I,” the post said.
Dotcom’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, confirmed to The Associated Press that the contents of the statement were accurate. Rothken would not say whether Dotcom or someone else wrote the post and did not provide further details.
News of his ill health comes during a protracted battle by the U.S. government to extradite the Finnish-German millionaire to the United States from New Zealand to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.
In August, New Zealand ’s justice minister announced that Dotcom should be surrendered to the United States to face trial, a ruling intended to cap a 12-year legal battle. A date for the extradition was not set, and Paul Goldsmith, the minister, said Dotcom would be allowed “a short period of time to consider and take advice” on the decision.
Rothken at the time wrote on X that Dotcom intended to challenge the order in court through a judicial review, in which a judge is asked to evaluate whether an official’s decision was reached correctly.
The saga stretches to the 2012 arrest of Dotcom in a dramatic raid on his Auckland mansion, along with other company officers. Prosecutors said the once wildly popular Megaupload raked in at least $175 million — mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies — before the FBI shut it down earlier that year.
Lawyers for Dotcom and the others arrested had argued that it was the users of the site, founded in 2005, who chose to pirate material, not its founders. But prosecutors argued the men were the architects of a vast criminal enterprise, with the Department of Justice describing it as the largest criminal copyright case in U.S. history.
The men fought the order for years — lambasting the investigation and arrests — but in 2021 New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled that Dotcom and two other men could be extradited. It remained up to the country’s Justice Minister to decide if the extradition should proceed.
“I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving,” German-born Dotcom wrote on X in August. He did not respond to an AP request for comment at the time, or on Monday.
Two of Dotcom’s former business partners pleaded guilty to the charges they faced and served time in a New Zealand jail, avoiding extradition to the U.S. Prosecutors abandoned an extradition bid against another, who has since died of cancer.
Dotcom did not say in Monday’s statement when he suffered the stroke. Usually a prolific X user, the internet mogul last posted to the site on Nov. 6.
FILE - Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom speaks during the Intelligence and Security select committee hearing at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on July 3, 2013. (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP, File)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport have gone on strike during a busy week of Thanksgiving travel to protest what they say are unlivable wages.
Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage in North Carolina, which a spokesperson said began Monday morning.
Officials with Service Employees International Union announced the impending strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.”
ABM and Prospect Airport Services contract with American Airlines to provide services including cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.
Workers say they previously raised the alarm about their growing inability to afford basic necessities, including food and housing. They described living paycheck to paycheck, unable to cover expenses like car repairs while performing jobs that keep countless planes running on schedule.
“We’re on strike today because this is our last resort. We can’t keep living like this,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said in a statement. “We’re taking action because our families can’t survive.”
Several hundred workers were expected to walk off the job and continue the work stoppage throughout Monday.
Most of them earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour, which is well below the living wage for a single person with no children in the Charlotte area, union officials said.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport officials have said this holiday travel season is expected to be the busiest on record, with an estimated 1.02 million passengers departing the airport between last Thursday and the Monday after Thanksgiving.
In addition to walking off the job, striking workers plan to hold a late-morning rally and a “Strikesgiving” lunch “in place of the Thanksgiving meal that many of the workers won’t be able to afford later this week,” union officials said.
“Airport service workers make holiday travel possible by keeping airports safe, clean, and running,” the union said. “Despite their critical role in the profits that major corporations enjoy, many airport service workers must work two to three jobs to make ends meet.”
ABM said it would take steps to minimize disruptions from any demonstrations.
“At ABM, we appreciate the hard work our team members put in every day to support our clients and help keep spaces clean and people healthy,” the company said in a statement last week.
Prospect Airport Services said last week that the company recognizes the seriousness of the potential for a strike during the busy holiday travel season.
FILE - A view of Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco, File)
An union ballot drop box is seen at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
Passengers walks past a union ballot drop box at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
An union ballot drop box is seen at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
LaQuanda Harvey, a Prospect airport service worker, votes in favor of a strike at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)
