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We have an army of girls coming over. The crazy kind of life you only see in movies. And then we would just go on for a month . . . travelling by private jet wherever we go. The limos pick us up, we stay in the best accommodation, eat at the best restaurants every night — living the life.

“Chartering yachts? I always loved yachts. You’re sitting on this 75-metre super yacht and it’s this whole experience of being able to do things with money that a normal, sane person would never do.”

Dotcom’s lifestyle and self-promotion propelled the public profile. He already had a “Kimble” persona — the pseudonym he claimed to have used in early breaches of NASA and the Pentagon. With wealth, and a growing interest in share trading, he became the “Kimvestor”. The profile came with a tendency to outrageous stunts. He emerged as the self-appointed leader of the self-created YIHAT — Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terrorism. He claimed, on behalf of the group, to have penetrated the bank accounts of Osama Bin Laden and at one stage claimed to have been close to tracking him down.

With the sale of DataProtect in 2001, Dotcom’s public profile was boosted with involvement in the Gumball Rally, officially known as the Gumball 3000. The international motor rally — not officially a race — covers 3000 miles of public roads, attracting more than 100 exotic and powerful cars driven by the famous and wealthy, including actor Adrien Brody, drum and bass star Goldie and boxing champ Chris Eubank. Dotcom found himself feted on German television as the wunderkind of the new technology economy.

Riding high on publicity, he announced plans to invest in a new venture, Letsbuyit.com, a Dutch online shopping network which grouped shoppers together for discounted bulk-buying prices. The bulk purchases made individual items cheaper, with goods then distributed among those who had teamed up for pool purchasing power.

Dotcom invested in the German offshoot of the company, which was suffering financially. He put in $1.4 million, gaining shares in return and then investing another €375,000. Having said he would assist in raising another €50 million, media reports he was funding the entire amount sent the price of shares in the company rocketing upwards. Dotcom, instead of buying more, sold out his original stock for three times what he paid for it. When the transaction became public, he was investigated for insider trading..

Dotcom was on holiday in Thailand when the news broke. Angry, he told media he was finished with Germany. This was interpreted as a refusal to return to face any court action. He also announced the “death” of Kim Schmitz, interpreted by some as an online suicide note. As German authorities announced charges of insider trading, the “death” was revealed as a re-birth — Dotcom said he now wanted to be known as “His Royal Highness King Kimble the First”, “Ruler of the

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