From the Herald today:
What Jonathan Coleman said on Monday: “Ministers had absolutely no knowledge of any pending FBI-NZ Police investigation.” What Immigration NZ said on Wednesday: “The general information about the FBI was passed to Mr Bickle who then passed it to the Minister.”
The FBI definitely had an interest in Dotcom staying in New Zealand after October 2010. This from the Hollywood Reporter interview with ex-Senator Frank Dodd, MPAA chief lobbyist speaking about why DotCom was arrested at the time their proposed Stop Online Piracy Act legislation was falling apart:
THR: Just as SOPA was falling apart, U.S. and New Zealand authorities arrested Kim Dotcom, the flamboyant mastermind behind Megaupload, one of the world’s biggest downloading sites. Did the timing strike you as odd?
Dodd: It seemed a little too coincidental. I take my daughters to school every morning, and I was in the playground one day and this woman comes up to me and says: “I just want to say hello. I work at the Justice Department, and I’ve been involved in this Megaupload case for the past several years.” And I said: “That’s interesting. Let me ask you something: Why did this guy get arrested at this particular time?” She said: “Oh, we’ve known about the date for the last year because it was his birthday. It was a big party, and we knew all the assets would be there.”
So the FBI was actively interested in having DotCom and the other ‘assets” in New Zealand at his birthday party in January 2011, the day on which four of them were actually arrested. The date was specifically chosen because they wanted everyone there. If there’s a conspiracy theory going, it was the FBI’s.
Grant Robertson is absolutely right:
Former Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman must come clean about when he was told the FBI was investigating Kim Dotcom.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress