Dotcom gets $60k monthly for living expenses

For many people around the world $60,000 is a yearly salary, and in some areas a very nice yearly salary. In the world of Megaupload CEO Kim Dotcom $60,000 covers a month of living expenses. New Zealand courts have now granted Dotcom and his family $60,000 a month to cover living expenses. Judge Judith Potter, who sits on the High Court in Auckland, granted living expenses to the family this week.

The judge allowed Dotcom to receive $20,000 a month paid out of interest accrued on $10 million worth of government bonds. The second monthly payment of $40,000 will come from a bank account in Rabobank that has slightly more than $300,000 tucked away. Dotcom petition courts for the payments last month to cover rent on the massive Coatesville mansion where he was arrested, which totals $1 million per year. The money will also be used to cover maintenance costs of the property believed to be about $600,000 a year.

Dotcom's bank accounts and assets were seized and frozen when he was arrested in January after charges of criminal copyright infringement among others were levied against him and other staffers of Megaupload. Dotcom's wife had previously been given $12,650 for medical costs and $20,000 to cover living expenses. Courts also gave the family access to the 2011 Mercedes-Benz they owned.

[via NZ Herald]