Jan 21, 2012, 2:09 GMT
Wellington - A multimillionaire accused of internet piracy tried to evade authorities using sophisticated devices and a 'safe room,' New Zealand Police said Saturday.
Kim Dotcom (formerly Schmitz), who founded one of the world's largest internet file sharing sites, was arrested with three others in a police raid at his mansion north of Auckland on Friday.
The arrests came after US prosecutors indicted seven people connected with internet site Megaupload, which they said earned 175 million dollars while costing copyright holders more than 500 million dollars in lost revenue.
The four men appeared in an Auckland court Friday and were remanded in custody before extradition proceedings resume on Monday.
Police on Saturday revealed more details about the raid.
Detective Inspector Grant Wormald said agents arrived in two marked helicopters, but Dotcom retreated into the mansion and activated electronic locking mechanisms.
'While police neutralised these locks, he then further barricaded himself into a safe room within the house which officers had to cut their way into,' Wormald said.
'Once they gained entry into this room they found Mr Dotcom near a firearm which had the appearance of a shortened shotgun.
``It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door.'
After the raids involving 10 search warrants in Auckland, 18 luxury vehicles were seized including several top end Mercedes, a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe and a 1959 pink Cadillac.
About 50 million dollars in Megaupload assets were seized around the world, US authorities said.
The hacker group Anonymous said it had launched its largest-ever online attack in retaliation for the US government's action.
More than 5,000 of its members had collaborated to bring down the websites of the Justice Department, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, the hacker collective said Thursday.
Megaupload users could upload music, movies, television programme and digital books, a large part of which were illegally copied, US authorities charged.
The site claims it serves legitimate users by allowing them to upload files that are too large to be transferred via email and can be streamed or downloaded by others.
'This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime,' the Justice Department said.
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