Megaupload coders avoid 10-year sentences by testifying against Kim Dotcom

Two Megaupload coders were sentenced to prison in New Zealand yesterday after pleading guilty to fraud and promising to testify against former Megaupload CEO Kim Dotcom, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Mathias Ortmann, a former chief technology officer who held 25 percent of Megaupload shares, was sentenced to two years and seven months. Bram van der Kolk, who led Megaupload software programming and held 2.5 percent of Megaupload shares, was sentenced to two years and six months.

Ars could not immediately reach Ortmann's and Van der Kolk's lawyers to comment. The High Court in Auckland did not immediately respond to Ars' request to review the judgment.

According to the Herald, Justice Sally Fitzgerald downgraded the coders' sentences from 10 years to current sentences due to "guilty pleas, assistance to the FBI, and rehabilitation efforts."

The deals will allow the coders to serve these significantly lighter sentences than expected in New Zealand rather than being extradited to the United States. Dotcom is still fighting extradition to the US.

In response to sentencing, Dotcom tweeted that "the conclusion from these light sentences should be" not to extradite him to the US "to face 185 years in jail."

"My legal team says that my co-defendants in the Megaupload case are eligible for parole after 10 months and will likely get parole as part of the deal they made with the US," Dotcom tweeted. "They will serve less than a year instead of the 185 years we were charged with. Good for them."

Dotcom also suggested that the coders' sentence could "be converted to home detention in a few months," calling the sentences "a slap on the wrist."

Ars could not immediately reach Dotcom for comment, but his tweet thread also claimed that he considered "the best part" of this week's sentencing was that it seemed to contradict US government statements deeming the Megaupload case “the biggest copyright case in history.”

"My co-defendants were not sentenced for copyright crimes, but for ‘fraud,’" Dotcom tweeted. "No copyright infringement."

Both Ortmann and Van der Kolk have briefly deferred the start of their prison sentences until August 1. The former requested to be present for the birth of his child, and the latter requested to spend time with his "seriously ill" mother, the Herald reported.

Dotcom: Coders “have been through hell”

Dotcom tweeted that he doesn't blame Ortmann and Van der Kolk for striking deals with the US government.

"They have been through hell," Dotcom tweeted.

The sentencing comes 11 years after their arrest and Megaupload's forced shutdown after an FBI raid dismantled the site for attracting 4 percent of Internet traffic by providing "easy access to copyrighted films, music, television shows, and video games," the Herald reported.

The scheme allegedly cost rights holders more than half a billion dollars, and Fitzgerald said it was clear to the court that Ortmann and van der Kolk helped Megaupload in its "deliberate attempt to disguise the copyright infringement," the Herald reported. The pair pled guilty to participating in this fraud.