Feds: We Can Freeze Megaupload Assets Even if Case Dismissed

[menotu]

 By Timothy Lee,  July 27, 2012 Ars Technica

The United States government said Friday that even if the indictment of the Megaupload corporation is dismissed, it can continue its indefinite freeze on the corporation’s assets while it awaits the extradition of founder Kim Dotcom and his associates.

Judge Liam O’Grady is weighing a request to dismiss the indictment against Megaupload because (in Megaupload’s view) the federal rules of criminal procedure provide no way to serve notice on corporations with no U.S. address. At a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, he grilled both attorneys in the case but did not issue a ruling.

O’Grady speculated, with evident sarcasm, that Congress intended to allow foreign corporations like Megaupload to “be able to violate our laws indiscriminately from an island in the South Pacific.”

But Megaupload’s attorney insisted that this may not be too far from the truth. Megaupload, they said, is a Hong Kong corporation with no presence in the United States. He argued it was perfectly reasonable for Megaupload to be subject to the criminal laws of Hong Kong, but not the United States.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/megaupload-freeze/

[Just17]

The government also argued that it could keep Megaupload in legal limbo indefinitely. “None of the cases impose a time limit on service,” the government’s attorney told the judge. Therefore, the government believes it can leave the indictment hanging over the company’s head, and keep its assets frozen, indefinitely.

Not only that, but the government believes it can continue to freeze Megaupload’s assets and paralyze its operations even if the judge grants the motion to dismiss. That’s because in the government’s view, the assets are the proceeds of criminal activity and the prosecution against founder Kim Dotcom will still be pending. The fact that the assets are in the name of Megaupload rather than its founder is of no consequence, the government claimed.

Ugh!

[YouCanToo]

What a bunch of steaming bull dung!   Leave it to our government to pull such pooh!  Sound like someone is just a piss poor looser.  Way to go US Government, that is setting a good example of what the rest of the world should not do.

[Wildman]

They have gone to the (insert worse one you can think of) haters of good and freedom! 

[Crow]

And it seems: USA blew it in the case against Megaupload, they asked to keep the files to protect an investigation and one year later showed them as prove that Megaupload was negligent.

If that is true there is not case against Megaupload.

http://alt1040.com/2013/01/megaupload-presentan-pruebas-de-como-estados-unidos-engano-deliberadamente

[Just17]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-03/u-s-lied-to-get-search-warrants-megaupload-claims.html

The U.S. paints Megaupload “as a brazen scofflaw,” that refused to remove the infringing content, the file-sharing company said. “The truth, as the government well knows, is quite different.”
Megaupload kept the files on the servers because the government told it to take no action that could disclose the existence of the investigation, the company said.

[horusfalcon]

The truth of this matter is probably somewhere midway between the extremes.  It is not really fair to say that Megaupload has "no U.S. presence" if it has assets in the United States that the feds could freeze.  (The feds, without the cooperation of a foreign government, cannot freeze assets outside the U.S.)

On the other hand, it appears that deception and misinformation in the obtaining of the warrants might mitigate in favor of the accused here.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, etc....

It is doubtless that Megaupload was used by many for illegal purposes, but does that make Megaupload liable for all illegal activity on their site?  I don't see where precedent for such liability exists in the law as it stands today, and it would be dangerous to establish such precedent, as it would have far-reaching and unintended consequences.

I only hope our judges do what's right for the law, and right for the body politic.

Later On,
D

[Crow]

Thank you Just17 didn't find the article in English

[Just17]

Thank you Just17 didn't find the article in English

YW ... 

[parnote]

What a bunch of steaming bull dung!   Leave it to our government to pull such pooh!  Sound like someone is just a piss poor looser.  Way to go US Government, that is setting a good example of what the rest of the world should not do.

+1 ... I've come to expect no less.