We had heard back around the time of the original case that there had been some incorrect fillings when it came to US authorities obtaining a warrant for the seizure of Kim Dotcom's estate in New Zealand, however, previous coverage of these details may have been somewhat of an understatement, as The New Zealand Herald claims to have uncovered.
The paper purports that evidence it has uncovered shows that a search warrant had been filed against Megaupload back in 2010, forcing the firm to preserve some allegedly "pirated material".
It was this very same material that US authorities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security, referenced in order to obtain permission to seize and shut-down Megaupload services. That's right folks, the information suggests that Megaupload was set-up!
"We were informed by (the US Government) we were not to interfere with the investigation. We completely co-operated, then the FBI used the fact the files were still in the account of the... user to get the warrant to seize our own domains. This is outrageous." stated Mr Dotcom.
The Herald's report, which comes straight from the horse's (FBI's) mouth, following a petition made to a US District Court for release of the information, claims that 36 of the 39 files uncovered in the 2010 investigation that led to the search warrant had been referenced in the 2012 case, "What we have uncovered, in our view, is misleading conduct," stated Ira Rothken, Kim Dotcom's lawyer, "It looks like the Government wants the confidentiality because they would be concerned their conduct would be scrutinised."
