Feds Are Going After Swizz Beatz in Megaupload Case, After All

July 19, 2012


Feds are looking for a way to prosecute against shuttered file-sharing site Megaupload in the US, and they're dragging Swizz Beatz back into their case. In a recent motion to dismiss the federal indictment against them, Megaupload says they can't be prosecuted by the US, because they're a foreign corporation with no offices or agents on American soil. US Attorney Neil MacBride disagrees. In a filing submitted earlier this week, he writes that Megaupload seems to have employed at least two CEOs in the US through which they can serve the company—David Robb and Swizz Beatz—and that both men represented the company in person at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Beatz was listed as Megupload's CEO when the site was taken down, but he wasn't named in the massive indictment the Feds filed against the company in January, and his attorney has said he was never actually in charge. Last week's filing notes that Beatz has refused to cooperate with the government's investigation, but if he's eventually served, he'll become a part of the case, whether he likes it or not. Speaking with FADER in March, Swizz Beatz said there'd be "a time and a place" to clarify his roll in the company, and that "in due time everybody will understand everything." Read the entire interview here.

Feds Are Going After Swizz Beatz in Megaupload Case, After All