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explained matters sufficiently, so said: “I don't know.” He paused, adding: “Now, please, give me back my computer and let me go back online because I need to work.”

It didn't happen. He was returned to a holding cell. Later, he says, he found a reference to the interview in prosecution material released to the defendants which claimed he “minimised his involvement”. Ortmann said it was “absolutely untrue”. “I was one of the most involved people in the operation. At no point did I say I didn't know or I didn't do that — I just explained how it was.”

The responses given by Ortmann were the reason nobody else was spoken to, said Dotcom. “Mathias, within a few hours of the arrest, without talking with any of the co-defence, has given them the description of how our business was run and has answered all the questions they have given him.” Dotcom says Ortmann's answers — straight down the line — “would be the same answers all of us would give in court” under oath. “After they talked to him they didn't want to talk to any of us anymore because how would that have looked?” It would have shown how they had all had perfectly straight, simple explanations which, in their view, dealt with every charge laid against them.

The confidence, Dotcom said, came through the errors made earlier in life. There was scarcely any move Dotcom took without careful legal advice. “We spent millions (of dollars) on legal advice over the years. I went out of my way to make sure I stayed out of trouble.” Dotcom said it was the reason he was able to rely on quick and enduring legal advice.

Since arriving in New Zealand, he had dealt with Simpson Grierson partner Greg Towers. The firm's expertise is commercial, with specialists across the spectrum. Not one of its partners would expect to receive a phone call from a client in a police holding cell.

Dotcom said he believed the plan was to deprive him and the others of money to fight the extradition case. Without cash, he believed, the expectation was he would be gone from New Zealand inside three months. “We knew early on because of this massive seizure of every single asset that this is really fishy and really dirty. These guys are really concerned about us having any funds to fight this case. This whole thing was designed to keep us in jail. To keep us out of funds to pay for our defence and to have us out of here as quick as possible. The way they planned it, there was probably a 90 per cent chance they would get away with it.”

Towers, said Dotcom, was instrumental in what followed. For some observers, the most remarkable aspect of the Megaupload case was the lawyers who worked for nothing. It would be nine months before any money was unlocked through the court process to pay legal bills.

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