
Mega-man: The fast, fabulous, and fraudulent life of Kim Dotcom - llambda
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/mega-man-the-bizarre-rise-and-sudden-downfall-of-kim-dotcom.ars?
======
veb
As a New Zealander, I'm not quite sure what to think. I really don't think he
should be extradited to the United States, rather his trial be held here.

(I believe justice will be served more fairly here... no $250,000 per download
crap - but that's just my opinion)

~~~
te_chris
As a fellow Kiwi I know what you mean. I don't want him to be extradited and
feel the precedent of cooperation on something like copyright is a betrayal of
our sovereignty, but at the same time, there's so much detail to this case and
there is so much bullshit swirling that a (lengthy) trip to the supreme court
in the US would seem to be worth the risk if it can establish some precedent
which moderates the ever-strangling enforcement of IP legislation at the
moment.

~~~
jacques_chester
Extradition is not a violation of sovereignty; it's an affirmation of
sovereignty. The US has to politely ask for the accused to be turned over and
the NZ courts will decide whether the request is legally valid under New
Zealand law.

------
Jun8
I found his story more sad than funny, this guy clearly had some inadequacy
issues. Evidently he was a hacker of some ability; had he stayed that way
today he could have been leading a medium sized legit startup perhaps.

But what's even sadder is the cavalier attitude Germany has shown towards him:
after his first set of crimes, during the extradition from Thailand he should
have got a more severe punishment it seems (what good that would have served
with a guy like that is another question altogether). Insider trading was not
a crime until 1995? It was banned around 1930s in the US I think.

~~~
moe
_Evidently he was a hacker of some ability_

I was actually (digitally) in touch with kimble and his BBS in my own BBS-days
and feel a need to set straight that, to my knowledge, he was never very tech-
savvy, and never a "hacker" by any standard. Instead he quickly made a name
for himself for being a full-on fraudster of the sociopath kind.

Here's a (german) article that sheds some light on his earliest endeavours:

[http://www.gulli.com/news/12565-nachruf-guenter-freiherr-
von...](http://www.gulli.com/news/12565-nachruf-guenter-freiherr-von-
gravenreuth-2010-02-22)

The gist is:

Kimble started out by running a warez-bbs and dealing calling cards (which was
quite common back in that day). Things turned nasty when his BBS got busted.
He did not only cooperate with the cops but there-after partnered with an
infamous german lawyer to set up traps for other BBS operators and sell them
(literally) to the authorities. This went on for years in an organized
fashion. From all accounts that I've heard he was not strong-armed into it but
rather made money that way and even bragged about it.

From there I think the ars article is mostly correct. But I wouldn't like to
see him get away with his self-proclaimed "hacker"-image.

In the german BBS-scene of the 90s the hate for him was unrivaled. There were
quite a few graphic kimble-related ascii-banners on some post-login screens.

~~~
nikcub
I can confirm this. I was part of a few groups back in the 90s and was there
when Kimble first showed up. He shot up in notoriety rapidly, but we figured
him out as not having any skills pretty quickly.

He would take 'hacks' from others and then claim them in the media for
himself. The first time he did this with one of the groups was when he went to
the media with the NASA hack. What happen was somebody on the channel had
dumped shell accounts on a few jpl.nasa.gov boxes, and a day later the story
was in the media that Kimble had done it.

I then watched him get kicked from other groups when he would do the same
thing - either claiming hacks as his own or taking exploits, ripping out the
attribution and putting his own name in.

He became a subject of derision with these groups so he then setup his own
group and bought in some fans - claiming he was going to 'hack' all of us.
Nothing ended up happening.

There is truth to most of his claims - for eg. the 'military secrets' claim
comes from a hack where some Indian and Iraqi military networks where hacked
and documents leaked. Around 20 people on IRC had access to them, and Kimble
claimed that one as well (one of the other guys ended up getting arrested for
it because he tried to sell the documents to an undercover agent).

Funnily the media attention that Kimble bought to himself bought a lot of
attention to Undernet and the groups that were on there at the time. It ended
up driving us to private SIRC servers and renaming most of the groups as a
large number of newbies (and probably federal agents) flooded onto the servers
and tried to gain access to the group channels.

A couple of years later he re-appeared with his security company and then
racing videos. We would be in conflict with him continuously - he would email
us with taunts and we would return them. The website of his security company
was defaced numerous times and his home directory dumped. He then tried to
call a 'truce' and to hire a few of us, I was on a few conference calls that
Kimble was on.

I then bumped into him again a little later on, after he started MegaUpload. I
wasn't surprised at all that he was behind the site. What we did back then and
with him was a bit childish and we grew out of it - but Kimble definitely
isn't a hacker in that old regard. He does have skills in promoting himself
and getting people to believe in his ideas.

------
donaldc
I'm amazed he was convicted/pled guilty three separate times in Germany and
yet never had to do any prison time. After going easy on him twice didn't
work, you'd think they'd want to try something else.

~~~
celticninja
Not every crime requires a prison sentence. One of those crimes was insider
trading, do you know that is also illegal in the United States too, with the
exception of it being carried out by US Politicians. Perhaps get your own
house in order before you start complaining about the legal systems of other
countries.

~~~
adestefan
There have been many people in the US that have gone to prison for insider
trading. Martha Stewart is probably the most famous.

~~~
celticninja
I dont doubt it, your SEC goes after it agressively, however that it is not
illegal for US politicians makes the whole thing a bit of a joke really as
they are the people who will have the most opportunity ot profit from some
actiosn given that theyc an influence and cotnrol policy which would
significantly affect share prices.

~~~
adestefan
Inside trading is specific to a single stock. Most politicians only hold
single stock in a blind trust so they can't really perform insider trading.
Instead, the flap over "insider trading" for politicians is when they,
supposedly, change entire sectors and then trade broad, sector based funds.
However, I don't think that has actually been proven with more than a look at
these financial disclosures. Does it look bad? Sure. Is it illegal? Nope.

~~~
celticninja
That is kind of my point, for them it is not illegal, for everyone else it is.
They are also protected from the kind of direct insider trading that the SEC
tries to stamp out in the private sector, to say that it doesnt occur is to be
a bit naieve really.

Here have a read:

[http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-
galloway/2011/11/...](http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-
galloway/2011/11/16/congress-and-a-16-year-study-of-insider-trading/)

"In September 2008, Bachus and other congressional leaders were privately
briefed by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke on the economy’s imminent meltdown.

The next day, Bachus was buying option funds that would increase in value if
the economy tanked.It did."

------
joeblau
I remember going to his websites back when I was in college. I was amazed at
the things that he had in flash. He had the trailing pointer, the 3D vector
text rotating for MonkeyBank site and his Kimble.org site was amazing at the
time. I wanted to be Kim, but at the time I had no idea what he did. Now I
realize that he didn't have any idea what he was doing either :).

------
rdl
What amazes me about Kimble is that it's not 100% fake; he did hype things up
by a large factor (renting private jets and putting stickers on them for
photos, vs. owning them outright as he claimed), but still, there was real
revenue from some (illegitimate or fraudulent) sources.

~~~
rorrr
He still comes off as a douche with a huge inferiority complex, trying too
hard to impress people.

~~~
hessenwolf
I'm not going to be the one to throw the first stone for that.

------
mahyarm
I really don't understand why the really rich with personal cooks let
themselves stay fat. This guy could of have bacon and eggs for breakfast
everyday with a ketogenic diet, have all of his nutrients and portions tracked
and lost weight with zero effort very quickly but he get's his private cook to
cook obvious crap for him all the time.

~~~
hyperbovine
I'm looking at a picture of this guy standing in front of his ludicrously
large private yacht in Monaco, with a scantily-clad swimsuit model frolicking
in the surf at his feet.

Sorry, why were we losing weight again?

~~~
DrJokepu
Obesity can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels,
heart disease and shortened life expectancy. Not to mention psychological
problems such as low self-esteem.

~~~
mpclark
>low self-esteem

Somebody tell Kim Schmitz...

~~~
DrJokepu
Money, success and photos with attractive women will not stop you from hating
yourself. Arrogance is not a sign of being secure about yourself.

------
ck2
Did he rape, kill or physically assault any American citizen? Was he selling
drugs to children?

No? Well then we had no right to extradite him.

Law enforcement is created by society to protect PEOPLE not corporations.

~~~
runn1ng
He stole other people's work and made business out of it. You are not
magically allowed to steal* from corporations.

*I personally don't classify downloading other people's work as stealing, but building a huge business from it is totally different matter.

And it's totally not the point of the article, anyway.

~~~
gameshot911
>I personally don't classify downloading other people's work as stealing, but
building a huge business from it is totally different matter.

You should though, because the two are just different shades of the same
color. Downloading other people's work = benefiting from their work without
their permission. Building a huge business = benefiting from their work
without their permission on a larger scale.

~~~
InclinedPlane
If I hear a song on the radio I'm benefiting from the artists work without
paying. If I record a song off the radio then sell copies of it to other
people I am doing something entirely different.

~~~
robotresearcher
You are paying for the ads that support the radio station when you buy any
advertised product or donate to a political campaign that buys ads. The radio
station pays to play the song. You are paying artists to listen to their music
on the radio.

~~~
InclinedPlane
And if I skip the ads or if the ads never influence me to buy anything, then
what?

------
clone1018
Bahahaha, more and more I read into this story, the more I realize, this guy
lived a more exciting life then more then 90% of us, even if he's going to
jail.

------
Toddward
I have to say - living a life that was a constant misrepresentation of itself
must have been _exhausting_.

------
stef25
He was also a participant in, and won once, the Gumball Rally. He made plans
to start his own rally ("Ultimate Rally") and got lots of people excited. He
was looking for stewards to assist in the race, they were asked to pay quite a
serious sum to get this non paying role in the event. It never happend and
people may have lost money on it by entry tickets not getting refunded; I know
because I communicated with him on this issue.

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/kimble_rally/>

Post 9/11 he also claimed to have the details of Bin Laden's bank accounts in
Sudan without offering a shred of evidence

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/18/bin_laden_hackmeiste...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/01/18/bin_laden_hackmeister_flees_germany/)

------
webwanderings
What's the point of glorifying such people who are no role models for the
world?

~~~
ramblerman
Is the article glorifying the truth? Or does a part of us find some of his
jetset, bikini clad model, high roller life glorious?

Your certainly correct he is no role model, but as long as making a million
bucks is the ideal of a good life, the problem goes deeper than this one man.

~~~
webwanderings
People's jetseting ambitions are no big deal, the Hollywood types portray lot
worse. But the tech-media seems to be fascinated by this guy's choices in
living his life, perhaps tech-media is finding an opening for the first time
to compete with the Hollywood media? No wonder there is a clash between the
two industries.

------
PaulAnunda
I wonder if the outcome would've been different if he were to have kept a much
lower profile and didn't seemingly thumb his nose at those who were seeking
his downfall

------
zmanji
This honestly looks like the plot of a movie.

~~~
mdonahoe
It reminds me of Lord of War <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/>

~~~
zmonkeyz
Lord of the Onion Rings

~~~
trefn
Goodness, a fat joke. How humorous!

~~~
weekendlogic
Goodness, a fat joke. How humongous.

FTFY

------
trtwn
Legends may sleep, but they never die.

------
westicle
Dotcom is being extradited for, inter alia, copyright crimes.

While reading the article, did anyone else wonder whether Ars got the
permission of the rightsholders to the images hosted on kimble.com?

Maybe Kim should commence proceedings to have Sean Gallagher extradited for
copyright infringement.

------
throwaway1970
Many of the articles about Kim Schmitz / Dotcom / Kimble quickly brush over
the calling card fraud in 1994. I think it is an important part of the story.

For those of you not familiar with the early 90's phreaking scene, calling
card fraud came to the fore as a timely replacement to blueboxing (which the
telcos had recently killed off). Calling cards also had a inherent
transferable value, so they had the added attraction that you could use them
as a means of barter.

A large number of people were busted at the same time (late 1994)(worldwide)
for trading calling card numbers that cost MCI, GTE and AT&T millions in the
early 90's. I've heard numbers up to $50 million quoted as combined losses. My
guess is that Kimble has been on the US Secret Service watch/hit list since
1994 when they failed to have him extradited to the US to face the calling
card fraud (conspiracy) charges.

Many of those busted in the USA went to prison. James Lay was the guy that
wrote the software to intercept the card numbers at the switch level and then
went on to sell on an estimated 60,000 card numbers through a worldwide
network of dealers. I think Kimble was one of those card dealers in Germany.

A large number of the accused were barely 18 years old when they were busted
and US extradition requests were denied due to their age. The Secret Service
busts were well organised and had to be executed and coordinated quickly
worldwide (no mean feat). This took a great deal of negotiation with foreign
governments and cost a great deal of effort and money. They then had to watch
as one by one those accused abroad were given hand slaps, charges were
dropped, deals were done, and court cases collapsed or never even made it as
far as a court room. That must have been very frustrating after all of that
effort.

Many of those busted were thought to have been 'turned'. It was also reported
that Kimble 'put himself forward' and allegedly 'offered' to help crack a
pirate software BBS group.

Also worth noting is that many of the cards that came into Europe went
directly east to the mafias in those new border countries that had previously
been the other side of the iron curtain before the Berlin wall fell. Being in
Germany (at this time being a EU external border country) meant that Kimble
may well have had some contacts in those countries that the BND (German
Federal Intelligence Service) might have been very interested in.

tl;dr The Secret Service never forgets!

<http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+ring+leader.-a019474647>
[http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-
frau...](http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-fraud-goes-
high-tech.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
[http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_b...](http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_beverly-
hills)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_Europea...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_European_Union)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Enlargement_2004.png>

------
kahawe
Working in Germany, the really sad part for me is seeing how TÜV and
Lufthansa, of all companies, blindly bought into his shenanigans. This should
tell you how absolutely clueless people were about all things IT, Internet and
PC back then.

------
baby
> the No. 1 player worldwide in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer.

I smell so much bullshit in this. How can you be number 1 when matches are 5
vs 5?

edit: Okay it's on Xbox live (hahahahaha), on FFA (hahahahaha) and for a few
minutes at most. This is just a big joke, the video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l-ltcCF_cAQ#)!

edit2: I know it's a very tiny part of the article, but I just bugged me that
you could write something like "Kim is also the number 1 player in Call of
Duty", it's just plain false and sensationalism.

~~~
lawnchair_larry
No, that claim is from his current standing on all-time leaderboards.

Not saying it is legitimately held, nor do I care, but ars wasn't being false
or sensational.

