Internet piracy-accused Kim Dotcom has been remanded in custody.

He will be held in custody until February 22, when extradition papers are expected to be filed.

The decision was reserved since Monday, when after a day of legal ping pong in the North Shore District Court, judge David McNaughton decided he needed more time.

Dotcom, a German millionaire and founder of file-sharing site Megaupload was arrested on Friday on behalf of United States authorities in an FBI-led police raid at his $30m Coatesville mansion.

US authorities are now seeking his extradition.

They allege Dotcom’s company breached copyright laws costing copyright owners more than US$500m in what they call the “Mega Conspiracy”.

The 38-year-old, who was previously convicted on hacking and insider trading, has denied any wrongdoing. He says he want to continue to live in New Zealand with his family, where he is a resident.

In court this morning, Dotcom again appeared in black clothing, brought from Auckland’s remand prison where he has been held in custody since Friday.

The public gallery was packed with the same posse of tight-lipped supporters who turned up at the first hearings on Friday and Monday.

In Monday’s hearing, Crown lawyer Anne Toohey had argued Dotcom posed a flight risk at the “extreme end of the scale”. She cited his access to money, transport and multiple passports as evidence of this, as well as his alleged lack of respect for authority.

Toohey detailed how during the police raid, Dotcom had run from police to a safe room, hiding behind a pillar and refusing to show his hands despite repeated pleas. A gun – believed to be a modified shotgun of a kind illegal in New Zealand – was found in an open safe just metres away.

She said 35 credit cards in numerous, differing names were found at the mansion along with three passports.

In defence, Dotcom’s lawyer Paul Davison had argued his client “collected” credit cards and had only used his New Zealand passport since its issue in 2010.

He rubbished claims that Dotcom was a flight risk, saying the helicopter he leased could not be flown overseas.

Davison said Dotcom did not want to jeopardise his residency so would comply with any bail conditions – including not using computers to restart the Megaupload business.

The three other men arrested in the raid – another New Zealand resident, Bram van der Kolk, and Mathias Ortmann and Finn Batato, both of Germany, will now have their bail considered by the judge this morning.

It was expected to take several hours.

In total, seven men were indicted in a US court last Friday. Each face five charges, three of breaching copyright law, and one each of racketeering and money laundering.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about whether the $10 million invested in New Zealand by Dotcom was raised lawfully, amid suggestions his residency could be revoked if it wasn’t.

It comes as the Government faces growing pressure to release all information it holds about the Megaupload founder.

The 37-year-old German national was granted residency last year under the Government’s Investor Plus category, which requires applicants to invest $10 million for three years.

Dotcom invested $10 million in Government bonds and made a large donation to the Christchurch earthquake fund.

Requirements under the Investor Plus category include having to prove the money was earned or raised lawfully.

Former immigration minister turned immigration consultant, Turariki Delamere, said it was no secret Dotcom was earning his money through Megaupload.

”Given the whole issue of piracy, one would suspect what he was doing was unlawful, which is the whole basis he has been arrested on.

”Piracy of intellectual property is illegal in New Zealand… But was that question ever put to Mr Dotcom?”

If the investment money was found to be raised illegally, Dotcom’s residency could be revoked, Delamere said.

However, a spokesman for the Immigration Service said Dotcom had made a ”significant investment in New Zealand from funds verified as being lawfully earned”.

He would not give any details or elaborate on whether the funds had come from Megaupload profits.

Labour has joined NZ First in calling for an inquiry into why Dotcom was granted residency and the release of all information held by the Government on the flamboyant millionaire.

Labour leader David Shearer has questioned why Dotcom passed the character test for residency, but failed the character test set by the Overseas Investment Office when he applied to buy his rented mansion at Coatesville, north of Auckland, last year.

”How did we allow somebody like this to come in that had convictions in other countries? At the same time he’s not being permitted to buy the property that he’s been using. I think that brings up some questions about what is the policy, what did ministers see?”

Prime Minister John Key suggested yesterday the final decision to turn Dotcom’s OIO application down was made by Government ministers.

But that was a different test to the one for residency.

The residency application was not referred to ministers for sign off, though the Immigration Minister was aware of the matter. He had been briefed by officials under the ”no surprises” policy, Key said.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said the issue for New Zealand was not the charges Dotcom faced in the United States, but why he was ever allowed into New Zealand.

”It is in the Government’s interests to tidy up these immigration irregularities.”

Key said officials were reviewing the file ”to check that they appropriately applied the rules” but he had no plans to change the law.

It has emerged that Dotcom schmoozed ACT MP and former Auckland Mayor John Banks, who dined at the leased Coatesville mansion, which is in Key’s electorate.

Key said he had been to the house when it was being built and he was a backbencher. But the first he knew about Dotcom living there was when he was briefed by the Solicitor General the day before last week’s raids.

Immigration New Zealand boss Warwick Tuck said 10 applicants from Belgium, Malaysia, the United States, China, Great Britain, Singapore and South Korea had entered New Zealand through the investor category, including Dotcom.

None of the other applicants declared criminal convictions and police certificates that were required as part of their application were all clean.

Key said Dotcom had ”fully disclosed his history” and under German law, because of the clean slate provisions, effectively had a clean record.

”To be honest it will be no different to a number of New Zealanders who’ve had residency in countries overseas, and who’ve previously had convictions here.”

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