By Rachel Tiffen
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is demanding a government inquiry into why Kim Dotcom was granted New Zealand residency with a criminal record.
Prime Minister John Key says German law had wiped his slate clean but a legal expert in New Zealand disagrees.
Dotcom has never been shy about breaking the law, and despite convictions for credit card fraud and insider trading in Germany, he became a New Zealand resident in 2010.
Under German law, a conviction is wiped after a set period but Christchurch-based German barrister Juergen Schubach says Dotcom's was not up.
“These last two convictions from 2002 and from 2003 have a term of redemption of 15 years,” he says.
Immigration New Zealand ruled his potential for investment good outweighed the risk of criminal bad, but Mr Peters says that is not good enough.
“Explain how on earth this guy could have got in here with his mates, it's that simple. Who was involved and let us know who was behind this. Did he buy his way in and is that all that matters now,” says Mr Peters.
Dotcom is one of 10 foreigners to come into New Zealand under the investor plus category, and one of nearly 2000 Germans granted residency in the last three years.
But Mr Key is not looking to change protocol.
“If every single case of where a person had a previous conviction was pushed through the ministers to make a decision, then I suspect there would be quite a few people that ministers would have to say yes or no to.”
It keeps the door wide open for future Dotcoms.
3 News
source: newshub archive
