Kim Dotcom has today hit out at John Key over a Government trip to Hollywood, claiming it is a reward to the Prime Minister for the raids carried out on the German internet mogul.
The Prime Minister's office today confirmed Key will travel to Hollywood this week to promote New Zealand as a movie making destination.
The Government has been criticised for being too close to the US following the dramatic raid on the Megaupload founder's Auckland mansion in January.
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Police arrest warrants used in the raid have since been ruled unlawful, and an inquiry has been launched into how the Government Communications Security Bureau unlawfully intercepted information in the lead up to the raid at the mansion.
The German national tweeted today: "Prime Minister meets studio bosses in Hollywood about doing business in NZ. Getting paid for the raid."
Dotcom last month called for Key to show the New Zealand Government was "not an American dancing bear".
Labour leader David Shearer said there was the danger Key looked as if he was "following on the US interest in having Dotcom extradited", rather than using New Zealand laws.
"These are people who put pressure on the US government to extradite Dotcom, I think it is only beholden on him to tell us exactly why he is there."
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said the Government needed to clarify who he was doing business with in Los Angeles.
"What we need is transparency to assure us that this is about good business, not bad business."
Dotcom said he believed US Vice President Jo Biden personally ordered the closure of Megaupload on behalf of the American film industry, particularly his close friend and former senator Chris Dodd, who now heads the Motion Picture Association.
Key today said such suggestions were "nonsense".
"There will always be conspiracy theorists out there, but I'm interested in jobs," he said.
The Prime Minister said his upcoming trip to Hollywood was on the back of Warner Brothers hiring 3000 New Zealanders and spending "a billion dollars" for the Hobbit movies after the Government changed the law to redefine what a contract film worker was.
"The reason we did that was to promote interest in making movies in New Zealand. The view of a number of people in Hollywood is that while we are doing well with Warner Brothers, it's quite possible we could do as well with many other movie studios like Fox and Universal and Disney and the likes. So I am certainly keen to go and promote New Zealand as a place to make movies."
The Government said the trip to Hollywood has been planned for months.
- with Fairfax