New Zealand Whistleblower Reveals He Was Told To 'Bury' Unflattering Info About The Gov't Spying On Dotcom

from the incredible dept

The list of incredible screwups concerning the investigation, raid and prosecution of Kim Dotcom in New Zealand is fairly incredible. At nearly every step of the way, we find out more and more about just how monumentally questionable the whole thing was. Frankly, I have no idea if what Dotcom did with Megaupload broke the law, but the indictment against him was filled with really questionable claims, the GCSB (local equivalent of the NSA) illegally spied on Dotcom and then deleted the evidence, the police sought to suppress images of the raid itself, and evidence was mishandled. Oh, and it was eventually revealed that customs officials agreed to share info on Dotcom with the FBI in the US to "buy... brownie points" with the FBI.

And, now a former high-ranking New Zealand Customs lawyer has said that he quit his job after he was ordered to "bury" information that made the New Zealand government look bad. Specifically, this is about that last point above -- the letter concerning the brownie points. Apparently, the New Zealand government didn't want that email to get out, despite it being required to be released under a freedom of information request (in New Zealand it's the Official Information Act). Curtis Gregorash, a lawyer in the Customs department was told directly not to release any such documents:

"Mr Taylor directed me to withhold all information and pass the same direction on to my team."

He said he was subjected to an internal investigation after releasing information about Dotcom sought by the NZ Herald through the Official Information Act. The information released saw Customs staff discuss earning "brownie points" by passing on Dotcom information to the FBI.

"Simpson Grierson [Dotcom's lawyers] had made several Privacy Act requests of the Government, some of which flowed through Customs, and decisions were made from ministerial level with Maurice Williamson directing Customs, 'Don't you dare release anything - nothing at all.'"

Gregorash apparently disobeyed these orders and released the "brownie points" letter -- as required by law -- and then faced an internal investigation, leading to him resigning in protest.

The "brownie points" OIA release to the Herald was the tipping point. "I got dragged over the coals for it. There was an investigation into me. I was cleared. I resigned after that."

He also seems to indicate that other documents that should have been released were withheld as well:

"All sorts of jokes and laughs and cut-downs that were being made by officials to each other were being withheld for [what he considered to be] no reason."

Gregorash had held onto the story for a while, but decided that it needed to be told.

Combined with everything else about this investigation and prosecution, it again makes you wonder what people were thinking. It still really feels like the DOJ and New Zealand officials all simply believed Hollywood's fanciful stories about Dotcom being "Dr. Evil" -- a cartoonish villain so bad that official and legal processes could be thrown out the window just to get him at any cost. Once again, it suggests that Hollywood and the DOJ officials who support it would be much better off actually taking the time to understand the nuances of the copyright debate, rather than their crude "piracy bad" level of understanding that they seem to have of it.

Filed Under: brownie points, copyright, coverup, curtis gregorash, customs, fbi, kim dotcom, new zealand, raid
Companies: megaupload

NZ Customs Refuses To Answer Questions After Revelations Of Illegal Orders To Give FBI Info On Kim Dotcom For 'Brownie Points'

from the the-scandal-expands dept

The scandal around New Zealand law enforcement's illegal activities in helping the US government raid Kim Dotcom's house and file criminal charges against him keeps expanding. The raid on the house has already been declared illegal by the NZ High Court. Then there was the issue of the local equivalent of the NSA, the GCSB, illegally spying on Dotcom for the US, despite rules that forbid GCSB from spying on New Zealand residents. It seems to be getting even worse.

A few days ago, it was revealed that a document, which was illegally withheld from an earlier freedom of information request, showed that a senior New Zealand Customs official named Greg Davis, told staffers that it would "buy you many brownie points" if they shared info about Kim Dotcom with the US FBI -- despite not being allowed to share info like this. At least one of the people who received the email noted that people should "seek legal advice" before handing over such information, but it's unclear if anyone actually did that.

Now, as concerned members of the New Zealand Parliament are wondering why top customs officials were interested in handing over private information on New Zealand residents to a foreign country's intelligence agencies for "brownie points," New Zealand's Customs officials have announced that they will not answer questions about it, in an effort to -- get this -- "protect the privacy" of the guy who sent that email, Greg Davis.

Davis, by the way, was running New Zealand Custom's "Integrated Targeting Operations Centre," which collects a ton of information on travelers. Many in New Zealand had already complained about the possibility of this group to abuse its powers, but at nearly the same time Davis was proving their point, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was defending the center with that old liar's trope: "anyone who is innocent has nothing to fear." He should have added "unless US officials are interested in you -- then you're fucked."

Filed Under: brownie points, customs, fbi, greg davis, kim dotcom, new zealand
Companies: megaupload