Ким Дотком вернулся в Окленд после судебного спора о доме в Гленорчи

Kim Dotcom is back in Auckland, fresh from a High Court case over the $15 million loan used to buy the Queenstown home that has been his base for eight years. David Fisher reports. He was Dotgone but now he’s back – Auckland is again home to New Zealand’s highest-profilefugitive from United States justice. Kim Dotcom has taken a lease on a plush property just north of Omaha Beach in Auckland, the Herald has learned. The four-bedroom coastal home has a rating valuation of $9.2 million, placing it among the more modest of the luxury homes occupied by Dotcom since he began visiting New Zealand more than 15 years ago. The bush-clad property, with covered verandas and a pitched roof, is described as resembling a Hawaiian resort. It features skylights, handcrafted wall panelling, oak floors and a swimming pool that looks over the ocean. The move follows eight years of Dotcom, wife Liz and children living in Glenorchy, near Queenstown, on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. That property has been at the centre of a dispute between the Dotcoms, the company American Dream Ltd that is listed as owner of the property, and Roger Ver, the wealthy cryptocurrency investor known as “Bitcoin Jesus”, who financed the purchase with a $15.1m loan in 2021. That relationship has now unravelled, as detailed in a judgment from the High Court in Invercargill issued last month. The judgment included claims from Ver that Dotcom had financial and health difficulties and that it would be like trying to “squeeze blood out of a stone” to seek money from the internet entrepreneur. The move back to Auckland is the first public indication that Dotcom has left the Queenstown property after the High Court ordered a mortgage in Ver’s favour. Dotcom’s return to Auckland follows a stroke in 2024 that, according to his social media, was physically debilitating. The Herald has confirmed Dotcom’s tenancy at the waterfront property near Leigh, north of Auckland. The property is owned by real estate power couple James Doole and Bryce Earwaker, who bought the 2.2ha property for $8.6m in 2023. It was listed again for sale in 2025 after a renovation by Doole, including the installation of a cable car and a fresh design of the grounds by sought-after Australian landscaper Paul Bangay. Earwaker told the Herald: “You know as much as I do.” He said the rental arrangement was handled by agents. The Herald has also spoken to neighbours who have seen Dotcom’s Mercedes-Benz SUV in the area with its distinctive personalised number plate. The battle against extradition Dotcom is facing extradition to the United States after an extraordinary legal battle that began when he was arrested in January 2012 on charges relating to his company Megaupload, a one-time giant of the internet, which the FBI claims was set up as a filesharing company. Dotcom is considered a fugitive from justice by the US, which wants to try him on charges of racketeering conspiracy, copyright-related offending and alleged wire fraud connected to Megaupload. Dotcom has always denied wrongdoing. The Court of Appeal this month rejected his latest challenge to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s August 2024 decision to surrender him. His lawyer has confirmed he plans to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. A relationship breaks down The move comes as land records show a mortgage lodged on June 29 against the Glenorchy home, securing in Ver’s favour the $15m he loaned to buy it. The property is owned by American Dream Ltd, of which Liz Dotcom is sole shareholder and director. Ver went to court to have the mortgage formally registered against the property after American Dream stopped making interest payments on the $15m loan. Mortgage records show a debt of $15m with annual interest of 6% a year, which works out at $900,000 a year, or $75,000 a month. Dotcom and Ver formed a relationship almost a decade ago as both became increasingly active in cryptocurrency. Ver was one of the biggest investors in Dotcom’s cryptocurrency venture Bitcache Ltd, eventually acquiring 12.5% of the company, according to Companies Office records. Bitcache was intended to usher in a new generation of online content-sharing through Bitcoin micropayments. It never launched and was placed into liquidation in 2023. Dotcom said the technology was redeveloped as a separate project called FileShop, which became the centre of his later business dealings with Ver. Then, in February 2024, Ver found himself the target of US authorities over claims of tax evasion and fraud. His case was resolved after he admitted tax offences relating to his Bitcoin holdings and agreed to pay almost $87m. Associate Judge Robyn Gambrill’s judgment showed monthly interest on the $15m loaned by Ver was paid for three years until payments stopped after December 31, 2024. Ver’s lawyers later required American Dream to sell the home. Liz Dotcom signed a real estate agency agreement in June last year, and Kim Dotcom said he and his wife initially co-operated with the sale. Then in October, Dotcom withdrew the authority to market the property. It led to Ver going to court to seek an order to register the mortgage. The judgment recorded Ver’s claims of unpaid rates and other property outgoings, along with physical damage he said had been caused by the Dotcoms. Those claims were not dealt with in the High Court, which focused on Ver’s case to have the mortgage registered. According to the judgment, the Dotcoms argued that the property loan was part of a broader business relationship with Ver around the proposed FileShop venture. Dotcom claimed Ver initially contributed cryptocurrency worth $7.3m and later promised a further $13.2m. Dotcom claimed Ver pulled out after cryptocurrency losses worth $865m. According to Dotcom, FileShop’s expected success was the reason Ver was comfortable funding the home, and that revenue from the venture would have repaid the loan. Ver denied promising the additional money and told the court he had simply decided not to invest further in Dotcom’s proposals. Associate Judge Gambrill found the claimed FileShop arrangement did not prevent Ver from enforcing the written property agreement. She noted Dotcom gave “very few specifics” about when or how the alleged further investment agreement had been reached. The judge also said she had “reservations about Mr Dotcom’s evidence”, although there was no need to make credibility findings to resolve the limited mortgage application. Ver had previously provided Dotcom-related entities with other funding. A March 2021 agreement provided for a $5.2m loan to Elizabeth Dotcom, secured by 15% of the shares in Bitcache. Dotcom claimed that agreement had been structured as a loan but was not intended to be repaid because Ver did not want his investment exposed to scrutiny from “the authorities”. His NZ story began in the North Dotcom’s shift north is a return to the region where his New Zealand story began. In 2010, he moved into the rented Coatesville mansion where he and three others were famously arrested in 2012. Dotcom left Coatesville at the end of 2015 and moved into a penthouse apartment on Auckland’s Princes Wharf. That apartment was also rented, and its owners later sued over alterations including black carpet, artificial turf and changes made for communications equipment. Dotcom denied wrongdoing and said the improvements had increased its value. He moved out in 2017. He and Liz Dotcom moved to Queenstown in April 2018, later occupying the Glenorchy home bought by American Dream with Ver’s money. During Dotcom’s years in Queenstown, his online focus broadened from copyright politics and his extradition campaign to commentary on international politics, wars and intelligence agencies. It also increasingly featured material that critics have described as anti-Semitic. Dotcom has been approached for comment and has yet to respond. Ver has also been approached. David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.