SYDNEY (Reuters) – Two coders at the file-sharing website Megaupload were sentenced to prison by a New Zealand court on Thursday after pleading guilty in a deal in which they promised to testify against the site’s founder Kim Dotcom, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Mathias Ortmann was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison and Bram van der Kolk to two years and six months by the High Court in Auckland, the newspaper reported on its website.
German-born Dotcom, who has a New Zealand residency, is fighting extradition to the United States relating to his Megaupload site, which was shut down in 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.
The sentences for Ortmann and van der Kolk were significantly lowered from 10 years as the court gave substantial discounts for the guilty pleas, assistance to the FBI and rehabilitation efforts, the NZ Herald said.
U.S. authorities say Dotcom, Ortmann, van der Kolk and a fourth Megaupload executive who has since died had cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material.
Dotcom, who is fighting the charges and his extradition, said on Twitter that the ruling meant his co-defendants could be free on parole in less than a year “instead of the 185 years we were charged with. Good for them”.
As for his own case: “My fight goes on.”
(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Peter Graff)
