FILE - In this Wednesday, July 3, 2013 file photo, Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom speaks during the Intelligence and Security select committee hearing at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand. Indicted Dotcom says he's launching a political party in his adopted home of New Zealand to contest the country's general election this year. In an interview Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014 with The Associated Press, Dotcom said he is founding and funding the party but will not be a candidate. (AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Mark Mitchell, File) NEW ZEALAND OUT, AUSTRALIA OUT
January 13, 2014 - 9:48 PM
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Indicted Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom says he's launching a political party in his adopted home of New Zealand to contest the country's general election this year.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Dotcom said he is founding and funding the party but will not be a candidate. Born Kim Schmitz in Germany, the 39-year-old is a New Zealand resident but not a citizen and cannot be a candidate under New Zealand law.
Dotcom says he will launch the party Monday, the second anniversary of when police stormed his mansion and arrested him. Authorities at that time also shut down Megaupload, the popular file-sharing site he founded.
U.S. prosecutors accuse Dotcom of facilitating Internet piracy. Charged with racketeering and money laundering, he's fighting U.S. attempts to extradite him.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014