A post on Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom’s X account states that he suffered a serious stroke

WELLINGTON Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who is fighting deportation from New Zealand to the United States on charges related to the file-sharing site Megaupload, suffered a “serious stroke” in a post published on his X account on Monday.

“I have the best healthcare professionals helping me recover. I will return as soon as possible. “Please be patient and pray for my family and me,” he said.

Dotcom’s attorney, Ira Rothken, confirmed to the Associated Press that the contents of the statement were accurate. Rothken did not say whether Dotcom or someone else wrote the post and did not provide further details.

News of his poor health comes amid the US government’s protracted fight to extradite the Finnish-German millionaire from New Zealand to the US to face charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

Inside August, New Zealand The justice minister announced that Dotcom should be extradited to the United States for trial; This decision aims to end the 12-year legal struggle. No date has been set for extradition and minister Paul Goldsmith said Dotcom would be given “a short period of time to consider and seek advice” on the decision.

At the time, Rothken wrote in

The saga dates back to Dotcom’s arrest along with other company officials in a dramatic raid on his Auckland mansion in 2012. Megaupload, once wildly popular, generated at least $175 million in revenue before the FBI shut it down earlier that year, mostly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies, prosecutors said.

Dotcom’s lawyers and other arrested people claimed that it was the users of the site, founded in 2005, who preferred pirated material, not its founders. But prosecutors argued the men were the architects of a massive criminal enterprise, and the Justice Department described it as the largest criminal copyright case in U.S. history.

The men fought against the order for years, harshly criticizing the investigation and arrests, but in 2021 the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that Dotcom and two other men could be extradited. It was up to the country’s Minister of Justice to decide whether extradition would proceed.

“I love New Zealand. German-born Dotcom wrote on X in August: I’m not leaving. He did not respond to AP’s 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 prison to avoid extradition to US prosecutors, who have since abandoned an extradition bid against another who has died of cancer.

Dotcom did not say when he had his stroke in his statement Monday. The internet mogul, usually a prolific X user, last posted to the site on November 6.