NZ Supreme Court to hear Megaupload evidence appeal

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 | Finance News

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has won the right to demand the United States hand over all the evidence in its online piracy case against the internet entrepreneur, New Zealand's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The ruling by New Zealand's highest court is a minor victory for Dotcom, a resident of the country who along with six associates is facing extradition to the United States to face charges that they conspired to infringe copyright, launder money and commit racketeering and fraud.

Dotcom can now appeal to the Supreme Court against a lower court's ruling in March that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation does not have to hand over all of its evidence against the German national in its extradition bid.

His defense team has argued that withholding evidence puts Dotcom at a disadvantage in fighting the extradition case.

Washington has filed a 109-page case to have Dotcom sent to the United States, the contents of which are suppressed.

The United States began a criminal copyright case against Dotcom in January 2012, when New Zealand law enforcement officers acting on a request from Washington conducted a dramatic raid on his mansion outside Auckland.

An extradition hearing is scheduled for August, but may be delayed due to separate cases which have emerged after a New Zealand court last year found that New Zealand used unlawful warrants in his arrest and illegally spied on him in the lead-up to the raid.

The copyright case could set a precedent for internet liability laws and, depending on its outcome, may force entertainment companies to rethink their distribution methods.

Dotcom maintains that Megaupload, which housed everything from family photos to Hollywood blockbusters, was merely a storage facility for online files, and should not be held accountable if content stored on the site was obtained illegally.

The U.S. Justice Department counters that Megaupload encouraged piracy by paying money to users who uploaded popular content and by deleting content that was not regularly downloaded.

It said Megaupload cost copyright holders such as movie studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds. It called the case among the largest ever involving criminal copyright.

Dotcom launched a new file-sharing service, Mega, in January.

(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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Russian investigators charge Rosbank CEO-Ifax

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 | Finance News

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The chief executive of Societe Generale's Russian unit, Vladimir Golubkov, and another executive at Rosbank were charged on Thursday for taking bribes, the Interior Ministry was quoted as saying.

Golubkov and senior vice president, Tamara Polyanitsyna, who was caught taking millions of roubles to her boss, were detained on Wednesday and a criminal case against them was later opened, Interfax news agency quotes a ministry spokesman as saying.

Several representatives from the Interior Ministry declined to answer questions on the report.

The Rosbank CEO was held on Wednesday "on suspicion of receiving illegal compensation" totaling 5 million roubles ($159,600), the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Golubkov was also suspected of demanding a bribe of $1.5 million from a businessman to grant a loan, the statement said. Polyanitsyna was held on suspicion of being an intermediary.

Dmitry Kharitonov, Golubkov's layer, told Interfax on Thursday that the Rosbank CEO denies the charge. ($1 = 31.3252 Russian roubles)

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Cambodian shoe factory collapse kills 2, injures 7

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 | Finance News

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The ceiling of a shoe factory in Cambodia collapsed while several dozen workers were inside the building early Thursday, killing at least two people and possibly trapping more under the debris, police said.

The ceiling is believed to have caved under the weight of heavy iron equipment being stored on the floor above, police officer Khem Pannara said. Two bodies have been pulled from the wreckage and at least seven people were injured in the factory south of the capital, Phnom Penh, he said.

Pannara said it was unclear how many people still are under the collapsed area.

"We were working normally and suddenly several pieces of brick and iron started falling on us," said an injured 25-year-old Kong Thary, crying on the telephone as she recounted the scene from a nearby clinic.

Chea Muny, chief of a trade union for factory workers, identified the factory as a Taiwanese-owned operation called "Wing Star" that produces shoes imported to the United States and Europe.

The garment industry is Cambodia's biggest export earner. In 2012, more than $4 billion worth of products were shipped to the United States and Europe.

About 500,000 people work in more than 500 garment and shoe factories throughout the country.

The accident comes about three weeks after a building collapse in Bangladesh that killed 1,127 people in the global garment industry's deadliest disaster. Bangladesh is the third-biggest exporter of clothes in the world, after China and Italy.

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