Kim Dotcom may get kicked out of New Zealand—but not because of copyright

Will driving 93 mph in a 30 mph zone be Dotcom's undoing?

The US stepped up the enforcement of copyright law dramatically when authorities chose to press criminal copyright charges against Kim Dotcom in 2012, grabbing his servers and raiding his New Zealand house. Dotcom's "cyberlocker" site Megaupload, which the US government accuses of massive piracy, went down instantly.

Then things slowed down dramatically, as New Zealand authorities weren't quick to hand Dotcom over. An extradition trial, delayed many times, is currently scheduled for June.

Now it's come to light that Kim Dotcom may get kicked out of New Zealand sooner than that, but it has nothing to do with copyright. The New Zealand Herald reports that the country's Immigration Minister has launched an inquiry to decide whether to deport Dotcom because of an unreported driving violation, in which he pled guilty to driving 149 kilometers per hour in a 50 kilometer per hour zone. (That's 93 mph in a 31 mph zone.)

Dotcom pled guilty to the offense in 2009, but when he filed his New Zealand residency application in 2010, it asked if he'd ever been convicted of an offense involving "dangerous driving." He answered "No."

Immigration NZ manager told the newspaper that it is "assessing Mr. Dotcom's liability for deportation" and the group has asked Dotcom to respond by May 4. The inquiry was opened after the Herald revealed the conviction in an earlier article.

If Dotcom was deported over the driving matter, it would be to Finland or Germany, not the US, where he would have to stand trial. However, it would clearly complicate his legal case, and it isn't clear how such a move would affect his chances of finally ending up in the US.

Additional details on the matter were published by TorrentFreak, which acquired New Zealand police records on the matter. “The defendant stated he had seen an 80km/h sign," those records state. "He further stated that he stepped on the gas for 3-4 seconds and then braked and reduced his speed to the speed limit. He also stated he wanted to test the acceleration of the vehicle."

Dotcom pleaded guilty by letter four days after being stopped by the police. He was fined $500 plus $130 in costs and banned from driving for six months.

The blog also reported that immigration records reveal Dotcom did disclose two other legal matters: a 1994 hacking conviction and a 2001 suspending sentence for insider trading. "Both were disregarded having been dealt with under Germany's 'clean slate' legislation," the blog reported.

As for checking the "no" box, Dotcom told the Herald it was a misunderstanding, saying his advisors who helped with the application knew about his driving conviction.