Sociopaths in the news: Megaupload

From a reader:

I was wondering if you followed the arrest of the megaupload.com crew in New Zealand. Kim Schmitz also known as Kim Dotcom, the founder had some pretty interesting reactions, and I think he might be sociopath as well. In addition to having a history of scamming and shady deals of which he was also convicted of in Europe, I personally have dealt with him and was almost scammed by the guy. I dealt with him once many years ago when he tried to organize an exotic car rally, the entry was supposed to be 50,000$ and the pot 1 million. Of course the race never happened and all those who paid didn't get their money back. He managed to collect quite a few deposits and made off with them. The very first time I spoke to him I had my spidey sense tingling me and decided against any further dealings with him. He does exhibit a lot of ASPD traits as observed by myself and as you can probably deduce from the following article, if you please to read it.

So first after the police descended on his mansion with helicopters he hid behind electronic defenses installed in his house, after those were breached by the police he hid inside a "panic room" and the police had to cut through it to get to him. Sounds almost like a caricature.  After that debacle, he goes on to say he has nothing to hide, and was happy to pose for pictures to the press. All of his past dealings and convictions related to him  are scams, accusations of insider trading, stock manipulation, and more scams.

What cemented my opinion about him having ASPD was also the fact that in between him trying to convince me to sign up for his rally, the next subject of conversation was how awesome and rich he was, and every few phrases or so he made a reference to his wealth. He talked about how much money he was making to the point I felt that he was either a very very insecure man, or a complete fool. Now I know better, and I'm pretty sure he is a bona fide sociopath. I've met a lot of people with fragile egos that need to boast and such but this guy... Nothing like him. He was definitely wealthy back then too, no doubt about it, but he was acting like we should be grateful to him for giving us the "amazing opportunity" to participate in his event.

One more thing to note, in spite of his flaws and quirks, he struck me as a very very intelligent man.

Editor's note: I was also persuaded by the aforementioned article's reference to his ties to two germans and one dutchie, who apparently were also megaupload.com leaders.  Central Europeans do not have a good track record for morality, and if they were attracted to Kim Dotcom (also German) enough to want to work under him, that is further proof to me that Dotcom was a charismatic and amoral leader.  Or it could be the shared language and culture.  Also from the article:

Possessions taken from Dotcom's Coatesville mansion provided a hint of the accused men's extravagant lifestyles. Eighteen luxury cars worth a combined $6m were taken from the site, including a 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coupe, with the licence plate GOD, and a 1959 pink Cadillac. Others including Mercedes Benz, a Maserati and a Harley Davidson motorbike with licence plates including POLICE, STONED, GUILTY and MAFIA.
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Dotcom maintained an extraordinary public profile, funding a huge New Year's Eve fireworks display over Waitemata Harbour in 2010 and commenting publicly on his charitable giving, including to the victims of the Christchurch earthquake and the Starship Foundation in Auckland.
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In a recent online missive Dotcom wrote about his life in New Zealand, saying how he heard local singer Gin Wigmore on the radio and wanted her to record the "Mega Song".

With a casual mention of how he was "chilling in the studio" with the Black Eyed Peas, he said Wigmore took the offer, came to the studio in Auckland, and nailed the song in three takes.
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Other material found uploaded [on megaupload.com]
included child pornography and terrorism propaganda videos, according to the indictment.