© Kirill_M – Fotolia.com

I hadn’t heard of Kim Dotcom or his company, Megaupload, until a few weeks ago, but he’s been all over online news sources lately.  Here are 10 facts about Kim Dotcom and Megaupload:

1. Kim Dotcom is German-born, and he changed his name from Kim Schmitz sometime in the last decade.
2. Dotcom was previously convicted of insider trading, and was known to be quite the hacker when he lived in Berlin.
3. He lives in New Zealand and is the founder and former chief executive of Megaupload, which is based in Hong Kong.
4. Megaupload is a “cyberlocker” site, meaning that it’s an online storage site.  Cyberlockers have legitimate uses involving the storage and sharing of large files, including presentations and home movies.
5. The FBI claims that Megaupload’s websites collected more than $175 million from activities that violated copyright laws and was was used to illegally copy half a billion dollars worth of entertainment content. Megaupload has been shut down by the FBI.
6. In January Dotcom was named in a FBI indictment, alleging criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit racketeering.
7. Dotcom was arrested at his birthday celebration at his 25,000 square foot mansion.  He had actually barricaded himself in a safe room, and police officers had to cut him out.
8. This was Dotcom’s second attempt to get out on bail.  Interestingly, Dotcom was denied the earlier bail because he had passports and bank accounts in three different names, and was considered a flight risk.
9. Dotcom’s conditions of bail include wearing an electronic tag, living in a small house near the mansion he was renting, no use of his helicopter and no internet access at his home.  He also has travel limitations.
10. Dotcom has been particularly interesting to the media because of his lavish lifestyle: he owns 18 luxury cars, with nameplates such as “HACKER,” “MAFIA,” and “STONED;” flies helicopters; and races cars in the Gumball 3000 Rally.

© kentoh – Fotolia.com

Anthony Chiasson, 38 year-old co-founder of Level Global Investors, recently turned himself in to the FBI.  Why?  Because they attempted to arrest him at his home after an insider trading investigation revealed he had made huge amounts of money on illegal insider trades.  In fact, Chiasson made $53 million in a single trade of Dell stock – which is the largest single trade ever charged in Manhattan.   Chiasson wasn’t home when about 6 FBI agents converged on his Upper East Side home, so he turned himself in later.

Investigators allege that a ring of traders at different firms shared information, illegally gaining a total of $61.8 million.  In total, the FBI arrested 7 people, including Chiasson.  The complaint “describes a circle of friends who essentially formed a criminal club” where “everyone scratched everyone else’s back.”  Recall that last year Raj Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in jail for insider trading gains of a similar amount.

Although prosecutors requested bail of $10 million, the judge set bail at $2.5 million.  The bond was secured by half of that amount by property Chiasson owns. 

I have to admit I made some assumptions about Dog – bounty hunting seems to be a very macho, hetero sort of thing, what with use of weapons and the tracking down of bail jumpers, alleged criminals, etc. – his world seems somewhat macho and this is not what I expected!  Clearly I engaged in a little stereotyping myself!  BUT I welcome Dog’s challenge to my assumptions and my attempt to stick him in a little box that in all honestly assumed he’s a homophobe.  I’m glad I got caught out!  My bad.

Given my recent post about how I wanted to see something positive from the bail bond industry, I’m pretty happy!  Still a little surprised, but happy to see Dog’s and his family’s support for equal rights!

Bail conditions were in the news Tuesday when Pennsylvania prosecutor’s asked that Jerry Sandusky be required to stay in his house as a condition of bail, except for medical treatment.  They also requested that he not be allowed to see his grandchildren – which doesn’t seem unreasonable given that there 52 child sex abuse charges against him.  

Apparently a teacher and intern at the local elementary school had noticed him on his back deck watching children at the local elementary school playing.  Could be that he was just enjoying a nice day outside.  Or it could be really creepy.  Really creepy.  

On Friday the court will hear the bail modification request.  

By the way, Sandusky’s original bail amount was for $250,000 cash – with the court determining he could use $200,000 in real estate holdings towards that amount, along with a $50,000 certified check from his wife.  Guess he didn’t use a bail bondsman.  That way, he’ll save himself the 10% fee, and get the money back as long as he appears in court and complies with all the bail conditions.

Now, I still believe that there are some good bail bondsmen and recovery agents out there, but the more I looks at the news, the more difficult it is for me to try to have positive thoughts about it.  It seems like there are three types of news articles about bail bonds:  1) those articles about someone who is accused of committing a crime, and who has had bail set or denied and 2) licensed bail bondsmen or recovery agents/bounty hunters involved in some kind of fraud, or unlawful imprisonment, or something else, and 3) unlicensed bail bondsmen or recovery agents/bounty hunters doing the same thing.  And then there are the articles that question very idea of the U.S. commercial bail bond system in the first place (yup – the only other country in the world, as far as I can tell, that has a commercial bail bond system is the Philippines, and four U.S. states have actually banned commercial bail bonding).

I think I may try to find stories now about bail bondsmen who have done some good charity work, or something nice.  Maybe that will be my next post.  A little bit of feel good…

But, in recent years, two bounty hunter movies have been romantic comedies.  In 2010 The Bounty Hunter, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, was released to less than stellar reviews.  In The Bounty Hunter, Butler plays the “recovery agent” role, tracking down his journalist ex-wife who is trying to solve a murder.

More recently, One for the Money has reversed the roles, with Katharine Heigl playing the bounty hunter, tracking down – surprise, surprise, – a romantic interest from high school, who has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit.  Heigl plays a laid off New Jersey lingerie sales woman, who find work as a bounty hunter through her bail bondsman cousin.  Based on a series of books by Janet Evanovich, the movie is also opening to less than stellar reviews.

Hmmmm…. dare I suggest that the Hollywood machine continues to make tons of money from being formulaic?  Plucky attractive women in romantic hook-ups with broad-shouldered rugged cops/ex-cops?

I realize that the purpose of those movies was to make money, but I also think the film industry can be critical in educating the public about “stuff.”  I actually think it’s time someone made a documentary about the bail bond business, bail bondsmen and bounty hunters.  Serious economic, social justice, race and gender issues intersect with the bail bond industry – I’d love to see some kind of in depth research.

Just saying.

Really? Over candy? I’m really not sure what to say to that, except that I’ve occasionally seen five years olds get into disputes over sweet stuff, and sadly sometimes things do end in tears; but lest we forget the obvious – these men weren’t five. What is it about ego, or the need for respect that elevated the value of a piece of candy above a living human being? Good grief. How do we get people to just walk away?

On Tuesday, the alleged shooter, Young Vito (aka Vinson Hardimon) was denied bond at a Fulton County (GA) courthouse. He had previously been arrested in Fulton County four times – all on charges involving gun violations. His most recent arrest in April 2011 was for aggravated assault, cruelty to children and gun offenses.

And another young man goes to jail… I realize that there are multiple complex cultural, historical, socio-economic and other factors involved here, but how, oh how do we fix it?

The article is titled “N.Y. Judge Obeys Order to Free 15 Reds on Bail”.  Apparently Federal Judge Sylvester J. Ryan had revoked a $176,000 bail bond issued for 15 “high-ranking” communists, because the trustees of the Civil Rights Congress bail fund (which was I’m assuming was an organization supporting the civil rights of the “reds” and which put up the bail money) were “totally unreliable” as bail bondsmen.  The reason:  Judge Ryan held an inquiry into the affairs of the CRC, and held three of the trustees in contempt of court for refusing to provide the names of people who contributed to the fund.

Judge Learned Hand ordered the release of the accused communists after they had spent two nights in jail, citing a Court of Appeals panel directing the U.S. attorney to accept the Civil Rights Congress bail pending the result of Judge Ryan’s hearing.  Apparently Judge Ryan hoped to discover information on the whereabouts of 4 members of the Communist Party National Committee who had jumped $80,000 bail to avoid 3-5 year prison sentences for plotting to teach the forcible overthrow of the government.

Wow.  So not only did the accused have to come up with a hefty bail amount, the source of the funds was also under scrutiny.  At least until Judge Learned Hand came to the rescue!

Randy and Evi are wanted for felony vandalism and misdemeanor trespass.  In November 2010 they skipped bail and fled to Canada.  Now they owe some bail company in California $1,000,000.

In cheesy and fame-seeking Hollywood fashion, Dog the Bounty Hunter and his posse got involved in September and October, offering to negotiate the Quaids surrender, and sending a mixed series of messages suggesting that if the Quaids didn’t turn themselves in, he’d want to go after them, but at the same time stating that he couldn’t because Dog would be breaking the law by trying to apprehend them on Canadian soil.  Dog’s wife also, and quite rightly, drew attention in her blog to the possible financial hardship the Quaids may have caused the bail bond company that helped them –  $1,000,000 is a lot of money, and most people notice when they have to give that sort of money up.

Randi and Evi are currently featured on Dog’s homepage, under the title “DOG’s MOST WANTED”, and they are also featured on Dog’s wife’s blog.

It’s going to be interested to see if this one goes anywhere…

Given Rajaratnam’s assets, the judge determined that $100 million bail would be enough to incent the accused to come to court.

Apparently that was a sufficient amount to prevent Rajaratnam from fleeing – in October 2011 he was sentenced to 11 years in Massachusetts prison, in addition to a $63.8 million fine. The SEC also fined Rajaratnam $92.8 million.