The house where Mr Dotcom – also known as Kim Schmitz -was arrested was one of the largest and most expensive in the country, worth around NZ$30 million.
Located in hills northwest of New Zealand’s largest city, the mansion is surrounded – at suitably discreet distances – by other substantial country homes and luxury lifestyle blocks complete with stables, swimming pools and tennis courts.
[ad#Google Adsense u tekstu]Mr Dotcom leased the property after being blocked from buying it last year by the government after failing to meet a ‘good character’ test for migrants, although he was granted residency in 2010.
The property has a number of locking mechanisms and a safe room.
He has previous convictions for insider trading and embezzlement from his time in Germany and Thailand, according to immigration authorities, leading some opposition politicians to question why he was allowed to settle in the first place.
‘New Zealand is under the radar, away from Interpol and a better lifestyle than Eastern Europe,’ said Jeffrey Carr, an Internet security expert.
QUICK INFO ABOUT KIM DOTCOM
Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz January 21, 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish computer programmer and businessman who generated much publicity during the dot-com bubble and was convicted of insider trading, and embezzlement in its aftermath. He is also known as the founder of Megaupload and associated sites. Sometime after 2010 he legally changed his surname to Dotcom. On January 20, 2012, he was placed in the custody of the New Zealand police under charges of criminal copyright infringement related to the Megaupload site.