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Digital Legal MegaUpload Timeline
Third Mega exec bailed
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 15 February 2012
All three of Kim Schmitz’s MegaUpload colleagues who were arrested with him last month for their involvement in the file-transfer and video sharing service have now been let out of jail on bail, though Schmitz himself remains incarcerated.
As previously reported, the New Zealand authorities arrested four men last month at the request of the US, who accuse seven men in total of copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering in relation to their involvement with the Mega empire.
Two of the four execs arrested in New Zealand, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato, were officially granted bail more or less immediately after their arrests, though technicalities about where they would stay while on bail meant they were only actually let out of jail in the last week.
The fourth man, Mathias Ortmann, was bailed yesterday. Despite the prosecution expressing concerns about the four men being in close contact while on bail, Ortmann will stay with van der Kolk while awaiting an extradition hearing, while Batato will stay with Schmitz’s wife. All have been banned from accessing the internet while on bail.
As also previously reported, Mega founder Schmitz has been denied bail amid fears he would flee New Zealand to his home country of Germany, where it would be much harder for America to extradite him.