(2012-01-24) Megaupload Shut Down

On 19 January 2012 the United States Department Of Justice seized and shut down the file-hosting site Megaupload.com (Mega Upload) and commenced criminal cases against its owners and others. On 20 January Hong Kong Customs froze more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars (US$39 million) in assets belonging to the company. Acting upon a US Federal prosecutor's request, the New Zealand Police arrested Schmitz and three other Megaupload executives in a leased $30 million luxury mansion at Coatesville near Auckland on Friday, 20 January (NZDT, UTC+13).[36] This was pursuant to a request from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that the four be extradited.

The action against Megaupload took place just hours after the mass online Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) protest. Shortly afterward, the United States Department of Justice's website and a number of other organizations' websites were taken offline following concerted denial of service attacks from activist group Anonymous.

The Justice Department's tactics, including accusing a file-sharing website of racketeering, money laundering, in addition to copyright violations, has some U.S. legal experts asking whether the case would stand up in court. "These actions, more suitable to the type of steps that the government takes against an Organized Crime enterprise dedicated to murder, theft, and racketeering, are astonishing," said Jeff Ifrah, an attorney who co-chairs the American Bar Association's criminal justice section and committee on white collar crime, via phone.